Bangkok - The movie "The Hangover II" shot in Bangkok

Roaming reporter · Senior Member

Bangkok - The movie "The Hangover II" shot in Bangkok

Roaming reporter · Senior Member

Bad fiction, films fine - it's bad reality that really upsets
By Pravit Rojanaphruk
The Nation

Residents and long-time expats who have watched the latest Hollywood comedy "Hangover Part II", which was mostly shot in Bangkok, may wonder how accurate the depiction of their city was.

In the film starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, three buddies wake up after an orgy of drugs, violence and sex and cannot remember what happened the night before.

The movie reduces Bangkok to a city known for its sex industry, drugs, crime and gangsters, with an elephant, street vendors and strangely robed monks included as colourful props.

While some of the representations of Bangkok are accurate, you won't find the mundane, traffic-congested normalcy and boredom as experienced by millions of Bangkok white- and blue-collar workers. They are simply not exotic enough and will likely dilute the image of the Big Mango as a legendary city unlike others.

Truths that are inconvenient are left out and the fact that the film is produced by the powerful Hollywood film industry means it stands a good chance of being distributed globally.

The production grossed US$86.5 million (or Bt2.6 billion) on its first weekend on North American screens, according to Associated Press on Monday. It's also being shown in 40 other countries, including Thailand, and has been doing well.

Back to the movie. Since the film is about three farang having a hell of a wild night in Bangkok, mundane aspects of the city that do not mesh with the main narrative are omitted. In this way, they can strengthen the core message of Bangkok in a selective and simplistic way, and make it easier and more entertaining for viewers. (BTW, this writer encourages Thais and expats to go see the movie and think about how Bangkok is portrayed and to ask themselves why).

In a way, it's also like how the Thai authorities and most of the Thai mass media attempt to control the grand narrative about Thai society and politics, and about what is "Thai" and what is not.

So for example, "all Thais" are depicted by most mass media as having "unreserved reverence and love" for the King and the monarchy. When that narrative gets affected by Thais who express themselves otherwise with regards to the royal institution, they get quietly thrown into jail through the lese majeste or computer crime law. And in the case of 'Da Torpedo', her lese majeste trial was even conducted in secret, while the media tried to play down the news as much as possible, if not ignore it altogether.

These people simply got in the way of a feel-good story line, and the growing number of arrests has become an inconvenient reality. And so they will be further ignored and edited out of the "normal" conversation about Thai people's relations with the monarchy, politics and society.

Never mind if by doing so, things become inaccurate or even distorted, because what the authorities and most mass media want is to ensure that the grand narrative is convincing, special and unspoiled from unwanted distractions to the plot.

I have little problem about the selectivity and simplistic description of Bangkok in the movie "Hangover Part II" because it's fiction. But when most mass media keep on making a simplistic and fictitious portrayal of the current state of Thai society and politics, especially regarding facts and the issue of people's relationship to the monarchy, they are doing a disservice to society and only hindering Thailand from ever maturing.

A feel-good and simplistic story line without nuance and irony is best left to bad fiction that is too good to be true.

Roaming reporter · Senior Member

extracted from the bangkok post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/family/241794/hangover-ii-the-mourning-after

The Culture Ministry's vultures are out to get tattoo artists despite giving a stereotype-packed Hollywood horror of a sequel a pass. Who's mixing the drinks?

Published: 12/06/2011 at 12:00 AM

If only the authorities were a little more consistent. Just last week we were being hauled over the coals for tattooing religious icons onto our private parts, remember? And yet this week, the same authorities are happy to allow a Hollywood movie to be made and shown here, reinforcing the stereotype that Bangkok is one big dirty brothel.

It's about three Americans who go on a drunken rampage throughout the city, including snorting cocaine with a Thai monk who, according to the movie, "like so many Thai monks has taken a vow of silence". This week I saw The Hangover Part II, a movie that in the last two weeks has taken in nearly US$200 million (6.06 billion baht) at the US box office.

A vow of silence? I've never met a monk in my life who's done that. On the contrary, the monk who wanders around my moo ban with his bowl each morning is as garrulous as any of my maiden aunts in Melbourne (and he doesn't even have sherry to help him along _ not that I know of, anyway).

Cocaine-snorting silent monks aside, I don't get it. The Thai government gets into a tizz about clueless Khao San Road backpackers who want Buddha tattooed on their bellies, but doesn't bat an eyelid over an exploitative big-budget Hollywood movie. Which gets more exposure? The tattoo or the No1 grossing movie in the US?

"Extremely lame" were the first two words to tumble from my mouth when I finally made it out of Major Cineplex Ekamai. Clever? Did I say clever? I loved the first Hangover movie. I was excited to hear the second installment was to be made in our beloved Bangkok, especially if they were going to be a little clever about it and avoid all the pathetic stereotypes we often see in Steven Seagal knock-off flicks set in this part of the world.

There are three ingredients that are in every Hollywood movie set in modern-day Thailand, and so absolutely essential I would make a pact with the devil that they are always included. The Hangover Part II is pretty well a carbon copy of the first one only this time it's set in exotic Thailand, a country full of naked ladyboys, monkeys that smoke cigarettes, and ping pong balls and razor blades found in every ... er, nook and cranny.

They are: A Patpong girlie bar, a transsexual and an elephant. The Hangover Part II has them all, and thank goodness the elephant snuck in at the very end otherwise I would be roasting alongside Hitler and John Denver this very minute.

Back in July, 1993, a scandal of unforeseen proportions erupted in Thailand that threatened to escalate into an international incident.I'm not a prude. I've had drunken nights in Silom in my time, and one of my very best Bangkok stories happened while I was watching a sex show in Patpong. Alas, cannot share it with you in a family publication, though your teenage kids would certainly get a kick out of it. But to continue to perpetrate this myth that Bangkok is a haven for sex is grossly unfair to Thai people. It's simply not true, despite evidence to the contrary.

British publisher Longman put out a new English dictionary, as if the world really needed another one. But this was "A Dictionary of Language and Culture" defining words in a more relaxed tone. By that I mean John Denver, who would normally have been defined as "a popular country and Western singer from the 1970s" would be described in the Longman edition as "a singer whose music inspires any discerning listener to castrate himself".

You could have heard the collective shriek of discontent from as far away as Manila. Academics threatened Longman book-burning events. Police officially banned the publication, marking the first and last time in Thai history the local constabulary took an interest in English dictionaries. In a similar vein, the new Longman dictionary defined Bangkok as a city known for "its Buddhist temples and a place where there are a lot of prostitutes".

A weekly political magazine asked me to write a column, in Thai, about the whole thing. I wrote that Longman was wrong to define Bangkok as it did _ but you could you blame them? The sad truth was, any single male arriving in this country was bombarded with Thais offering them sex. A spokesman for the then government, a handsome young man fresh out of Oxford by the name of Abhisit Vejjajiva, said that defining Bangkok by its prostitutes was a bit like defining the English by their football hooligans.

At Don Mueang airport, there used to be a counter where you could sign up for a Bangkok By Night Tour (ie a brothel trip) before you even left the restricted zone. Once past that counter, you'd get into a cab where the driver would ask you if you needed a woman for the night.

Strolling down Silom later that night, young men thrust cards in your face advertising trumpets, razor blades and ping-pong balls, none of which were for sale. Tuk-tuk drivers asked if you "want lady". Thai guys dressed as used car salesmen shouldered up next to you: "You want lady?" Pause. "Man?" Longer pause. "Boy or girl?" At your hotel, there were prostitutes working the bars and sofas in the lobby, as well as glossy brochures advertising massage services in your room.

Can you see where I am going, dear reader? Bangkok may not be a city full of prostitutes _ but the locals in the tourist areas sure as hell make you think that way.
This is the great irony; like every big bustling city in the world Bangkok has a thriving sex industry, but is this a city where sex is more rampant and abundant than anywhere else?

Absolutely not. Put your wallet away and try entering a relationship with a Thai without a single discussion about price per hour or a TV set for some ageing mother in Isan. You will find things astonishingly conservative _ and therein lies the heart of Thai culture. Of course, this is something a little more difficult to encounter and explain. It's much easier to go with the stereotypic flow, like The Hangover Part II has done, and it ends up all wrong.

The messages are as clear as they are trite; all transsexuals work in the sex industry. Thais love to take their clothes off in front of strangers in public. (Haven't the Hollywood execs ever been to a Thai beach?) Monks use big sticks to bash foreigners who dare to speak in a silent monastery _ not to mention their cocaine habits.

While all this is demeaning to Thais, it isn't half as demeaning to ourselves. So this is what we find entertaining? Is it truly funny to watch Mike Tyson singing One Night in Bangkok out of tune _ a song which, by the way, the Thai government banned 25 years ago owing to its offensive lyrics about Bangkok?

Perhaps the difference between that Swedish backpacker with the Buddha tattoo and an offensive Hollywood movie isn't about the magnitude of its religious offence or even remotely associated with culture. Could it be the small matter of the $30 million Hollywood invested in Thailand to film it here? Is that how much it costs to belittle a culture and get away with it? Who knows?

Like I said, these are confusing times for cocaine-free, chatty expats.

Sawasdee · Senior Member

Where to stay in Bangkok: The best beat "Sukhumvit Soi 19"

The Soi 19 Directory shows you why an 800mtr zone is Bangkok's best beat! and we link you to best
"Hospitality & Tourism" at Longdo Bangkok (E Books Beginner to Advanced)
(Longdo is Thai for "please try") E Books for Beginners to Advanced.

When in Bangkok "Get the most use a Host" try Asoke P.A. Concierge

Best wishes, AusWaThai Exec Tours Bangkok

extracted from the bangkok post http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/family/241794/hangover-ii-the-mourning-after

The Culture Ministry's vultures are out to get tattoo artists despite giving a stereotype-packed Hollywood horror of a sequel a pass. Who's mixing the drinks?

extracted from the bangkok post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/family/241794/hangover-ii-the-mourning-after