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Faiths and Films:
Crisis of Thai Buddhism on the Silver Screen1
Pattana Kitiarsa2
Introduction
In the eyes of scholars and social critics, Thai Buddhism has experienced chaos
and crisis since the 1980s.3Buddhism in contemporary Thailand has become, in Nidhi
Auesriwongses words, an alienated and unwanted surplus (suan koen) in Thai life
and society (2003:5). Its institutional and moral foundations have been considerably
weakened by eroding penetrations of modern consumerism and materialism.
As critics point out, the crisis of Thai Buddhism has manifested in both its
establishments and popular perceptions toward its clergies conducts. The Sangha (theBuddhist official organization) has been questioned for its moral legitimacy and
authority. In his monumental work, Phra Phaisan Wisalo (2003) traces the origin of the
crisis of Thai Buddhism back to key modernist reformations and changes since the early
Bangkok era.4 He argues that Thai Buddhism has been facing difficulties and challenges
from both inside and outside Buddhist institutions. Thai Buddhism has by and large lost
its moral authority, spiritual leadership, and cultural significance in contemporary
Thailand, because its leaders and institutions lost their battlegrounds to the aggressive
and complex forces of modernization and globalization from outside. Moreover, the
Thai Buddhist Sangha has often been criticized for its corruption-stricken
1Paper presented in an interdisciplinary conference on Religion in Contemporary MyanmarBurmese
Buddhism and the Spirit Cult Revisited, organized by the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies, StanfordUniversity, May 22-23, 2004. An earlier version of this paper was read in the Conference on New
Southeast Asian Cinemas: Where Big Budget Meets No Budget, organized by Asia Research Institute,National University of Singapore, May 3-4, 2004. The author would like to thank Dr. Khoo Gaik Cheng,
the conference organizer, for allowing him to use some of the Thai films and other materials from herprivate collection. She also renders him her critical comment and editorial help over the early drafts. I am
grateful to Thelma Fadgyas for her additional editorial assistance. Any shortcoming or inadequacy
persisted are my sole responsibility.2The author is a former faculty member at Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima,Thailand and currently a Postdoctoral Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore,
The Shaw Foundation Building, Block AS7, Level 4, 5 Arts Link, Singapore 117570. Email:
[email protected] Keyes (1995); Nidhi Auesriwongse (1999); Phra Phaisan Wisalo (2003); Phra Thepvedhi [P.
Payutto] (1993); Phra Thammapitaka [P. Payutto] (2002); Sanitsuda Ekachai (2001); Sulak Sivaraksa
(1995); Suriya Smutkupt et al (1996); Swearer (1995).4Although many scholars emphasize King Mongkuts reform, which gave birth to Thai modernist or
Protestant Buddhism as the watershed of modern history of Thai religion, I contend that Thai Buddhismsmost severe crisis took place when Ayuthaya fell at the hands of the Burmese army in 1767. Efforts made
by King Taksin and King Rama I were to create new regimes fashioning after Ayutthaya with Buddhismas an ultimate source of the political legitimation. Wyatt (1994) describes King Rama Is immediate
responses to the prolonged socioeconomic, political and religious crisis as the subtle revolution.Reynolds (1976:203-220) sees early Bangkok era as the cosmological transition from the old Siamese
Tribhumi Buddhist cosmography to the new modern one.
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administration and visionless ill-adaptation.5 After reviewing a series of infamous
monks sexual scandal and corruption cases, Keyes (1995) asks: Does the Buddhist
Sangha have a future in modern Thailand?
Furthermore, public faith in the Buddhist monkhood is in a state of decline. As
Swearer (1995:159) points out, The traditional religious festivals that once shaped
community life are gradually losing their meaning. A small percentage of the male
population is being ordained into the Buddhist monkhood. Sanitsuda Ekachai, a noted
journalist with a keen interest in Thai Buddhism, observes: Hypnotised by the new
magic of science, post-war educated Thais have grown up to see Buddhismgiven its
emphasis on merit-making, heaven and hell, and the magic practiced by many monks
as simply superstition, suitable for the elderly (2001:7). In his studies of Thai
popular religiosity in the 1990s, Jackson (1997, 1999a, 1999b) argues that Thai
Buddhism has been undergoing postmodernization characterized by the emergence of
boom-time religions of prosperity commercialized Buddhism (phuttha phanit) and
other phenomena of commercially oriented religiosity.
In addition, Buddhism as a modern social institution and as spiritual guidance
and identity marker has apparently been fragmented with competing interpretations and
practices from various movements and modern agencies. Many studies explore the rise
of urban Buddhist movements such as Dhammakaya, Santi Asoke, and Suan Moke
Movement in the past three decades.6 They consider the rise of these reformist Buddhist
movements as struggles for modern relevance (Suwanna Satha-Anand 1990),
different paths to make sense of modern socioeconomic changes from Buddhist
perspectives, and venues to provide the legitimacy for political power for the growing
urban middle class, especially in the case of Dhammakaya Temple.
In other words, most scholars, social critics, and public opinion in contemporary
Thailand are in consensus in their arguments that Thai Buddhism in the 21 st century has
been serious challenged by what Tanabe and Keyes define as secularization and
disenchantment (2002:8). Its moral authority has become very problematic and
questionable. Doubts are placed against its capability to provide assurances and
resources needed for people to make sense of complex and ever-changing worldly
5Chote Tasaneeyavej, a veteran Thai journalist, comments on series of sexual scandals involving Thai
monks in 1990s that Iron is eroded by its own rust. Likewise, the Sangha is eroded by its own memberswho abuse the yellow robe (cited in Sanitsuda Ekachai 2001:47). See also a comment on Thai Buddhism
in post 1997 economic crisis by Knox (1998).6See Apinya Fuengfusakul (1993:153-183); Heikkila-Horn (1996:93-111); Jackson (1989, 1997);
Suwanna Satha-Anand (1990:395-408).
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matters. In order to rescue Buddhism and make it relevant to the present time (som
samai), Thai Buddhism, they strongly advocate, needs to be reformed and restructured
from top to bottom (Phra Phaisan Wisalo 2003:246-282).
In this paper, I will look beyond the mainstream critics and intellectual thoughts
by re-examining the discourse on Thai Buddhism in crisis from popular film
perspectives. Is Thai Buddhism really in crisis? What is the crisis all about? The
scholars and social critics standpoints toward the contemporary state of Thai Buddhism
will be countered with stories based on a selection of recently-released popular films,
namely,Fun Bar Karaoke (1997), Mekhong Full Moon Party (2002), and Ong Bak:
Muay Thai Warrior(2003). These three films are selected based on rather arbitrary
grounds. I purposefully choose them as case studies of film stories concerning
contemporary Thai life, organized around an apparent theme of popular religious beliefs
and practices. The stories told in these films are well-embedded in, and indicative of,
the ongoing social discourses concerning popular Buddhism and its fate in
contemporary Thailand.
Viewing the discourses on Thai Buddhist crisis, set forth by scholars and social
critics, as rather authoritative, rigid, and monological, I argue that, in this selection of
popular films, the contemporary state of Thai Buddhism is narrated and interpreted in
very remarkably different tones. There is virtually no crisis concerning Thai Buddhism
presented or reflected in the films, but a firm faith in Buddhist teachings and principles
with some critical concerns of its agencies and performances in the fast lane of Thai
society.Fun BarKaraoke,Mekhong Full Moon Party, and Ong Baknot only reconfirm
prominent places of popular religion in Thai life, but also remit a message similar to
Milan Kunderas stance on the power of novel: If the novel [Buddhism] should really
disappear, it will do so not because it has exhausted its power but because it exists in a
world grown alien to it (Kundera 1995:92). Thai Buddhism has been momentarily
caught up in the world grown alien to it, while its practitioners and followers alike
have been struggling and succumbing to the crises of modernity, which entails an
irrevocable rupture with a habitus rooted in an unquestioned cosmology (Tanabe and
Keyes 2002:7italic original).
When scholars, critics, and government officials in Thailand criticize that Thai
Buddhism has been deteriorating, they make their judgments mainly based on
doctrinally-defined moral Buddhist standpoints. They rely on the authority of written
texts, especially the Tripitaka and authoritative conventions, while they rarely take into
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account popular versions of Buddhism. What I learn from these three films is that
popular tradition is the most dynamic and meaningful part of Thai religious life. In the
films, especially inFun Bar Karaoke andMekhong Full Moon Party, complexity and
diversity of religious beliefs and practices are repeatedly acknowledged. They are part
of an ordinary culture (Williams [1958]1997:3-14) of the practice of everyday life.
Religion is neither about the sacred nor the profane, but an ordinary juncture of both,
where people are free to talk, tease, discuss, blame, or even commodify it.
Voices concerning the current health and situation of Thai Buddhism are far
more multidimensional, lively, engaged, and open to debates in the stories told in the
popular films. Toward the end, I suggest that popular religion can find films as
alternative sites of discursive practices to discuss what matters most for ordinary people
in contemporary Thailand. Film renders itself as a dialectical medium of representing
social realities and as a venue to reflect popular voices on certain issues. Films as
Dissanayake (1992:3) points out, are cultural practices in which the artistic,
entertainment, industrial, technological, economic, and political dimensions are
inextricably linked (Ibid:1). In the words of a Thai veteran filmmaker, Prince Chatri
Chalerm Yugala (1993), My film is a reflection of what exists.
Filming Thai Popular Religion
In an interview, Prince Chatri Chalerm Yugala, arguably the best-known
filmmaker in contemporary Thailand, believes that the Buddhist concept of karma is the
most crucial point to understand the lives of struggling people, e.g., prostitutes, the
gunmen, HIV patients, taxi drivers, elephant keepers, whom he has filmed over three
decades. You see what happened to them is their own karma, what happened to them
in their last life. And now, if they make merit, in their next life it will be better (cited in
Richardson 1993).
This veteran filmmakers view indicates that, at least, there are some subtle
connections between religious content and films in Thailand. Although he himself has
never produced a film based on explicit Buddhist or other religious stories, grains of
religious beliefs and practices have been actively portrayed in his films. Thai audiences
are familiar with key Buddhist principles and concepts like karma, law of action, or the
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moral authority of Dhamma (Buddhist teachings), in his long list of films in the past
three decades.7
What Prince Chatri Chalerm tells us is that the marriage between religion and
film is not a rare phenomenon in Thailand, even though it has never been obviously
acknowledged. In popular perception, film and Buddhism are seemingly unrelated
subjects. Their existences are defined by a totally different purpose. They belong to two
separate domains: secular and religious. Thai movies are intended primarily for
entertainment. Every detail has to be easy to understand. The story is driven by
conversations or a characters thoughts--often expressing their innermost feelings, ideas
and secrets, observes Anchalee Chaiworaporn (1997), a leading Thai film critic.
However, film as an entertainment media has its grip of power. Its power to tell stories
on the silver screen in a very convincing manner and to reorient people to believe in its
make-believe reality is almost irresistible.
Thailand has witnessed the power of this Western-invented entertainment
technology as early as when film came into an existence in the late nineteenth century.
According to Dome Sukvong (n.d.), a pioneer film archivist who has been playing an
active role in founding and running the National Film Archive, film was introduced to
Thailand soon after it was invented in the West in the late nineteenth century. The first
film shown in Siam was about a play called Parisan Cinematograph in 1897, which
the audience was limited to wealthy aristocrats and businessmen. In its early days, film
was known in the Thai language as phaphayon, rupphayon or hunphayon, which
were sets of terminologies indicating make-believe entities or things enlivened by
certain magical formulas. Of these three terms, phaphayon has emerged in both
official and popular usages, while nang, which derives from traditional Siamese
shadow play, has been adopted widely as the most common colloquial term for cinema,
film, and movie. Since early twentieth century, Siamese, especially those living in
Bangkok, have been familiar with Western cinema (nang farang) or Japanese film
(nang yipun), which were shown both in popular permanent theaters and open-door
makeshift theaters. In his painstaking search to locate the film concerning King
Chulalongkorn during his European tour in late 1890s, Dome reveals that perhaps King
Chulalongkorn was the first Siamese to use the term nang farang, referring to the
7See the list of the films by Prince Chatri Chalerm Yugala at the website:http://www.thaipro.com/cgi-
in/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.html
http://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.html7/29/2019 Faiths and Films
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Westerners shadow play, in his letter to Her Majesty the Queen in 1897 (see Dome
Sukvong 1993).
Several studies8trace the history of Thai film through its rise and fall over a
period of century.9Writing a history of Thai film by using Wallersteinian political
economy framework, Boonrak Boonyaketmala (1992:62-98) argues that the rise and fall
of Thai film can be divided into three periods with some distinctive political features.
From 1897 to 1945, film was a core part of European influences as Thailand was their
informal empire. From 1945 to 1976, film once gain was under foreign influences,
especially USA, since Thailand became the US collaborator state. The final period from
1976 to 1992, Thai film fell into a miserable state under the Hollywood domination as
the country had entered the so-called the era of new industrial state. The life and death
of Thai cinema have been closely linked with the modern world system. In his view,
Thai film industry is nothing, but part of international politics of trade and
cultural/ideological control. Films in fact have a role to play whether the country was
under whatever ideological or socioeconomic regimes, such as European colonialism,
communism, or capitalism.
Hamilton (1994:141-161), on the other hand, takes a closer look on the role of
the Thai state in the film industry. She suggests that the Thai power elites concepts of
the role of film derive directly from an attempt to assert and maintain a curious
repressive-modernist control over the political/social consciousness of a society plunged
headlong into a postmodernist global economy (Hamilton 1994:142). Instead of
discussing a large modern world system as Boonrak does, she points out three social
segments which compose the deep structure underlying the conflicts of the Thai film
industry, especially during the 1980s and early 1990s: namely, the conservative power
elite, the Western-oriented bourgeoisie, and rural/provincial people. The struggles
among these segments are actually the struggles to represent Thailand in the film
industry.10
8See Amporn Jirattikorn (2003); Anchalee Chaiworaporn (n.d.; 2002); Boonrak Boonyaketmala (1992:62-
98); Dome Sukwong (n.d.; 1993); Hamilton (1994); Knee (2000; 2003).9For a comprehensive timeline of the history of Thai film, seehttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?
url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.html10
There are also other studies which provide informative accounts of Thai films and their illustrative
features in different periods. Anchalee Chaiworaporn (n.d.; 2002) outlines the birth and growth of Thai
cinema from its early days in 1897 up to the present. Series of articles both in Thai and Englishlanguages, which are available in the Thai Film Foundation website,l deal with various aspects of Thai
films, such as the movie houses (rong nang) (Dome Sukvong), Thai films as mirrors of Thai society(1973-1986) (Anchalee Chaiworaporn), the heydays of Thai film industry (1927-1946) (Phanu Ari), Thai
pornographic films and the post-1973 political freedom (Wimonrat Arunrotesuriya) or Thai films in
http://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.html7/29/2019 Faiths and Films
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Religious issues or religious aspects of Thai life are not among the dominant
contents in Thai film stories. Religion certainly cannot be classified as a genre in Thai
films. Sutthakorn Santithawat (n.d.) writes about the overall situations of Thai films in
the 1980s and 1990s and classifies them into five major genres: drama(nang chewit),
comedy (nang talok), action (nang bu); horror(nang phi); andpornography(nang po).11
Religious beliefs and practices, especially popular Buddhism, mightappear in almost all
of these genres, but they are more often featured in the horror movies, which involve
rituals concerning spirits, monks, or spirit doctors/exorcists.
Most religious content and themes in Thai films predominantly belong to
popular rather than doctrinal Buddhism. Out of these Thai movie genres, there are at
least four possible ways, where religious content is incorporated into Thai film stories.
They include (1) stories based on the life history of Buddha; (2) stories about famous
monks and their prominent sacred biographies; (3) stories of popular spirits/ghosts; and
(4) stories concerning superstition and supernaturalism. Popular ghost stories,
famous/legendary magical monks, and some superstitious laymen are among examples
of religious subjects represented in Thai films. Some recently released films,
Aungulimala (Ong Kuliman)(2003) and My Story: Luang Pho Khun Paritsuttho
(2003) could be examples of popular films based on the Buddhist legend of a Brahmin-
turned-Buddhist monk and a biography of a contemporary famous magical monk from
Northeastern Thailand. There are also a number of movies released in 1970s and 1980s
with an emphasis on dramatic love stories of a young man emerging from a boy living
in a Buddhist temple and a well-to-do woman such asLuang Ta (1980). Finally, there is
a large number of Thai films on ghost stories and other supernatural power. Superstition
and magical power are frequently featured in the films likeKraithong(2001),Khun
Phaen: Legend of the War Lord(2002);Mae Bia (2001);Nang Nak(1999);Pra Apai
Mani (2001); and Three[Arom Athan Akhat] (2002).12
1980s and 1990s (Sutthakorn Santithawat). More published works also depict the contemporary state of
Thai movies, which some authors claim as a new golden age for Thai movies (Cummings n.d.; see also
Min 2004:56-57). Of many published works on recently-released Thai films and current situations ofThailands film industry, Amporn Jirattikorn (2003), Anchalee Chaiworaporn (2002), and Knee (2000,
2003) have stood out, discussing cultural and ideological messages and other complex discoursesrepresented in the widely-hailed new waves of Thai films.11In the website Thaiworldview.com http://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htm, perhaps the largestcollection of Thai films available on the internet (184 titles), Thai films are classified into 9 genres,
including, action, comedy, crime, drama, fantasy, history, horror, romance and thriller.12See more examples of Thai films with religious contents, especially horror and fantasy movies in
http://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htm
http://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htmhttp://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htmhttp://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htmhttp://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htmhttp://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htm7/29/2019 Faiths and Films
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Bangkok Superstition and Its Pre-1997 Economic Crash Insanity13
Fun Bar Karaoke (1997) does not represent the film stories discussing
the crisis of Thai Buddhism per se, but it certainly depicts the religiosity of ordinary
urban dwellers in contemporary Thailand. Pen-ek Ratanaruangs14debut feature film
could resemble many academic research projects on the sociology of religion in
cosmopolitan Bangkok settings and urban centers elsewhere. His film addresses a
question set forth by generations of sociologists and anthropologists of religion: how
primordial religious forms, e.g., superstition, and rational modernity, could co-exist and
blend themselves into the extremely chaotic and noisy Bangkok prior to the 1997
economic crisis. Pen-ek himself sees his film project as a social study of the city of
Bangkok and its inhabitants with an emphasis on their syncretistic religiosity and
modern life constraints:
Physically, Bangkok is like any other cosmopolitan city in the world. It is
full of tall modern buildings. Streets are full of cars. There is a Seven-Eleven or a
McDonalds at every corner. Middle-class and upper-class people wear Armani or
Paul Smith. In other words, it is very westernized. However, people still go to
fortune tellers every week, asking them what to do with their lives. When we have
important projects, we give food to monks hoping to turn luck our way. We still
believe in ghosts and spirits. The intention of this film is to study how these two
extremes co-exist. When the film was completed, I felt that a study of this topic
could turn out to become nothing but a satire. (cited in Wenner 1997)
Whether or not it is a satire as Pen-ek intends,Fun Bar Karaokes storyline
shows how Thai superstition has persisted in the postmodernizing Bangkok realities
through the life of a typical middle-class Bangkok family struggling at the downturn of
the late 1990s bubble economy. Pu, a young lady working with an advertising agency,
lives with her playboy and karaoke bar-going father. Lately she has been having a
strange dream (fan ba) about her dead mother, who, in Pus dream, has kept building a
house model. Despite living in a complex postmodern environment and working in ahighly dynamic business sector, Pu is a traditional Thai girl, a family-oriented dutiful
daughter, and an old-fashioned superstitious person. The dream keeps coming back to
13Knee (2003:102-122) provides an extraordinarily insightful reading of the films by Pen-ek Ratanaruang,
Fun Bar Karaoke (1997), 6ixtynin9 (Ruang Talok 69, 1999), andMon Rak Transistor(Transistor Love
Story, 2001). Focusing on the gender meanings of the Thai economic crisis, he argues that these threefilms depict the gendered resonances of Thailands turn-of-millennium cultural and economic upheavals,
while also addressing the place of Thai tradition to these upheavals (Knee 2003:102).14For his biofilmography, Tom Pannet (Pen-ek Ratanaruang) was born in 1962 in Bangkok, Thailand. He
studied art history and philosophy at the Pratt Institute in New York City. After graduation, he worked asa graphic designer at Designframe Incorporated in New York for 3 years before returning to Thailand. In
Thailand he worked for an advertising agency until 1993 when he started directing televisioncommercials. In his next life, he would like to be a professional soccer player or a fortune teller.Fun Bar
Karaoke is his debut feature film (Wenner 1997)
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haunt her whether she is asleep or awake and she simply can not steer her mind away
from it. With assistance from Pum, her only friend, who is a daughter to a fortune-teller
and works as a 7-11 store clerk, Pu decides to seek advice concerning her mysterious
dream from Pums father. The fortune-teller tells Pu that if the dream continues, her
father will soon die when the house is finished. His advice makes Pu sick with worry
about her fathers fate.
InFun Bar Karaoke, the female gender is connected with dream, mystery,
superstition and home-nurturing tradition against the backdrop of Bangkok materialism
and modernism. Women possess complex, paradoxical qualities as a rescuer and a
mysterious destroyer. The spirit of Pus mother is building a house, which she herself
had dreamt about when she was alive. Dressed in black with cigarettes, always looking
sorrowful and lonely, the spirit wishes to spend her life after death with her husband in
her dream house. It means that in one way or another, Pus father will soon die so that
he can reunite with his wife in their never-fulfilled real-life romance. Keep advice from
the fortune-teller seriously, Pu realizes that only her magical tricks can save her fathers
life from this mysterious tragedy. Through Pus recurring dreams of her mother, the
film situates Pus mother with tradition, home, and parental responsibility [T]he
maternal is linked not only with dream, but with ethereal and non-earthly realms more
broadly, indeed suggesting an alignment between the feminine and things mystical,
immaterial, and spiritual (Knee 2003:105).
The male gender, on the other hand, is linked closely with extremely mundane
activities, which can be considered as seriously de-meritorious from a Thai Buddhist
perspective. Men like Pus Father, Noi, and his boss enjoy themselves with obtaining or
exercising their masculine power by making money in the stock market, being hired as a
gunman, or having pleasure smoking, drinking, or womanizing. Like most nouveau
riche Thai, who are mostly from a Sino-Thai background and widely addressed assia,15
Pus father is among the prime examples of Thai de-meritorious persons in boom-time
Bangkok. He has made easy money from the stock market and real-estate speculation
during the boom era. After the death of his wife, he returns to his single, playboy days.
The difference this time is that he has no parental obligation because his daughter has
already grown up or perhaps he is simply ignores his family responsibilities. With
unlimited amounts of cash at his disposal, he visits karaoke bars regularly, having fun
15Further analysis on the emergence of Sino-Thais in contemporary Thailands economy and politics, see
Ockey (1999) and Pasuk Phongpaichit and Sungsidh Piriyarangsun (1992)
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drinking, smoking, and fooling around with girls. Singing and performing karaoke
allows him to gain access to freedom to express his inner voice as a lonely man, while
releasing him from the prison of his own daily frustration and anxiety. His fate takes a
dangerous turn when he meets Yok, a chaophos16 mistress through his fun-loving
friend. Although Pus father possesses expensive and most auspicious Buddha amulets
as advertised by the amulet dealer, supernatural power fails to save him from the life-
threatening misfortunes by the chaophos cronies. The law ofkarma shows its obvious
force against Pus Father. He suffers the consequences of his own fun-loving behaviour
as well as his neglect of his paternal responsibility at home.
Why doesnt Noi suffer from his karma as a sadistic gunman and his other
criminal activities? This is an apparently self-contradict point in the film. One way to
understand Nois fate is to look at him as a racially mixed person ( luk krueng) and as a
mentally abnormal young man. He is perhaps a product of a short reunion between
American soldier and a Thai woman. He works as a gunman for the chaopho.Neither
superstition, nor flashy Bangkok night life could influence Noi. What fascinates him
most is saving money he earned from his job and learning English (from tapes) with the
hope of travelling to the USA. He is a regular customer at the 7-11 Store, where Pu
hangs out with Pum. Noi has a crush on Pu, but is too shy to ask her out. In Noi, there
are many otherwise impossible mixtures; a money-conscious crook yet teaching himself
English, which is considered an asset for modern professions, a sadistic gangster yet
nave at womanizing. He can easily and cold-bloodedly kill, yet his tough manhood
hopelessly vanishes whenever he appears before the girl he loves. In the Thai cultural
context, being born to a foreign father or mother, or raised outside Thailand could be an
understandable excuse for not being a culturally-conformed Buddhist or traditionalist.
Nois unusual mercilessness and sadism as a gunman is a personal symptom of a young
man being abandoned from normal parental guidance or familiar relationship during his
childhood.
What doesFun Bar Karaoke contribute to the understanding of the current state
of Thai Buddhism and urban religiosity? Apparently it has nothing to do with doctrinal
or established Buddhism. However,Fun Bar Karaoke vividly recaptures real-time
possibilities of everyday urban religious beliefs and practices among Bangkok dwellers
16Chaopho, literally godfather, refers to the Thai mafia who could manipulate the states power andexercise his agency in various economic and political domains. His power and influence lie in his
economic wealth, control, and well-maintained connection with established power structure. Togetherwith nakleng(bandit or strong man), chaopho represents macho types of Thai masculinity in Thai popular
and political culture (see Ockey 1999:1033-1058).
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and elsewhere in Thailand when the countrys economy was on the verge of socio-
economic turmoil. While critics and scholars constantly cry foul on the extreme
popularity of prosperity cults and the rise of the commercialization of Buddhism
(Jackson 1999b, 1999b; Pattana Kitiarsa 2002:160-176), this film confronts them with a
stunning story. It illustrates how superstition works through the portraits of a family and
a group of people deeply in psychological and spiritual crisis. A young working woman
follows the fortune-tellers advice concerning her unusual dream. Her father does not
know how to deal with his lustful urge and material greed amid chaos and turbulence,
symbolized through the scenes of notorious traffic jam, his heavy drinking and smoking
while singing karaoke, and lovemaking with hired bar girls. An unusual hit-man who
has no sense of moral guilt from his paid job to murder other people, devotes himself to
worshipping money and America. He is ready to do whatever necessary to actualize his
dream.17
Superstition has occupied its stronghold in the Thai mentality and penetrates the
tissues of their daily life, especially through female agency. Dialogue between Pu, Pum,
and an old lady customer illustrate this point. Pum reads outloud a horoscope column,
popular in the Thai daily press, to Pu which predicts varieties of personal romance,
work, health, and luck. When Pum makes fun of her reading, an old lady customer
overhears this. Disgusted, she does not hesitate to give Pum a warning shot with a
popular Thai expression that reflects the superstitious roots in Thai popular culture. The
old lady warns Pum that, you cannot make fun of it. If you do not believe, you cant
ever offend supernatural beings (mai chuea ya lop lu).
The masterly, yet playful, treatment of linguistic signs in the Thai-English
switch of the films title by its director and production team is very notable. Except for a
fixed meaning of Japanese-invented Karaoke in some degree, the Thai terms Fan
(dream) and Ba (crazy, mad, or insane) are displaced or doubled by Fun and Bar
in English. In this act of trans-linguistic double-entendre (Knee 2003:107), the
original Thai term (Fan Ba, crazy or mysterious dream) is disassembled, transformed,
and reconstructed into a new set of signified and signifier --Fun and Bar. In its Thai
version,Fan Ba connotes a far different meaning from Fun and Karaoke Bar in English.
Pen-eks intention is to play with the free-floating or arbitrary nature of signs to acquire
trans-linguistic meanings of words.
17In other words,Fun Bar Karaoke among other things portrays that superstition [is] alive & well in
Bangkok (Bangkok Post. February 5, 2002).
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I argue that the most central idea for this movie is Ba (literally, crazy, mad, or
insane). Although Pen-ek and his production transliterate it into Bar in English, which
acquires a totally different meaning and connotation, its original Thai word has rendered
its authoritative voice dictating the whole story. This adjectival term tells us that people
living in Bangkok and overall Thai society on the verge of the 1997 economic crash
were caught in the unconscious state of insanity. In one way or another, people are
mad, frustrated and busy living their surreal life. Spiritual and moral aspects of their life
were particularly weak. They were mad at making money, hysterical about their
luxurious lifestyle and anxious and aimless in their fast-paced daily lives. Left without
any clues as to the direction of their lives with their overheating economy in the final
stage of melting down, everything seemed out of control. Bangkok traffics were heavily
jammed and the government had run out of ideas for effective solutions. Underground
crime and their operators were on the rise, as was corruption in both private and public
sectors. In short, Bangkok was in the midst of madness and its population, struggling to
find ways out to release enormous tension and survive the suffocating forces. Using
dream and karaoke as metaphors, the film shows everybody desperately seeking
material as well as spiritual solutions to their life constraints. They yearn for assurance
and sanctuary to help make sense of existence in a very confusing social world.
Translated into Thai Buddhist terms, life as seen inFun Bar Karaoke is
swimming in a boundless sea of suffering (thuk, in Thai and dukha, in Pali). People
suffer as consequences of their own past and present life actions (karma). With certain
insane dreams in an unusually extreme socioeconomic environment, people lose their
vision and destiny and hopelessly get stuck in their immediate worldly life guided by
lust, greed, and resentment. They are prisoners of their own insane dreams (fan ba). The
scene which leads Pus father back to Yok for the last time and his eventual beat up by
the chaopho and his cronies, fittingly exemplifies the cycle of suffering endured by
people living in the pre-1997 crash Bangkok. Spiritually, he was too weak to resist his
lustful urge and the powerful seduction of the karaoke bar. The moment he pulls up his
car at the bars parking lot and enters the bar through the rainfall is the moment when
his fate is decided. The cycle of suffering and karma has made a complete self-orbit. He
could have regretted his decision for the rest of his whole life.
Thai Buddhism and Its Defenders
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Ong Bak(2003) is essentially an ultra nationalistic film, telling a story of both
authentic and imagined Thai masculine national identities or Thainess and their
internationally-acclaimed defender in the name of anciently genuineMuay Thai (Thai
boxing). Prachya Pinkaews18 intention to glorifyMuay Thai and some other authentic
Thai martial arts (i.e., traditional fencing) is the central theme in this film.19
In Ong Bak, Prachya intends to dialogue with his audience on at least two
counts. First, to the international martial arts world,Muay Thai is second to none when
it is treasured and practised up to its maximum capability and perfection. It is far
superior to most, if not all, of much advertised martial arts disciplines in the
international market. And second, he reminds his Thai audiences and, simultaneously,
shows their international counterparts,Muay Thai as Thailands true national heritage,
which has been culturally woven into delicate tissues of the countrys national tri-
pillars: nation, religion (read Buddhism), and monarchy.Muay Thai, especially during
its old glorious days, is not just a male pastime; its true existence is to protect the pillars
of Thainess against intruding enemies (see Pattana Kitiarsa 2003; Vail 1998:75-95). In
this case, the film chooses to depict howMuay Thai has become a bodily lethal weapon
to defend Buddhism, as it is symbolized in a famous Buddha statue from Ban Nong
Pradu, a fictitious rural village located somewhere in Northeastern Thailand. The film
also glorifies aspects of supposedly harmonious continuities of local traditions and
village Buddhist institution.
The film storybegins when the head of a revered Buddha statue, called Ong
Bak, was beheaded and stolen by urbanite thieves from the worship hall of Ban Nong
Pradus temple. Bunting or Ting, a skillfulMuay Thaipractitioner and son of this poor
village, volunteers to bring back the villages most valuable asset. He eventually uses
hisMuay Thai skills to win Georges support to his endeavors to recover the Buddha
statues head. He also relies on his physical and mental strength, plus never-say-no
18For a brief bio-data, which is provided for the International Film Festival, Rotterdam 2004, Prachya
Pinkaew studied architecture and in the early 1990s started making music videos. As a director andproducer he is widely known as a master in translating Hollywood formulas to the local Thai variety. His
film credits includeRong Ta Lab Plab/The New Shoes (1993),Kerd Eek Tee Tong Mee Ther/RomanticBlues (1994), Ong-bak: Muay Thai Warrior(2003) (see,
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/person/85547.html).19
An international film reviewer notes that Ong Bakis propaganda for Muay Thai, a style
recognizable to anyone who has ever watched Thai kickboxing. Elbows, knees, shins and forearms all
come into play in fights that value flexibility as much as ferocity. In the films central set piece, Boontinguses Muay Thai to defeat a wide variety of foreign devilsincluding a brutal western solider, a wild-
legged Japanese gangster and an insane Australianto get the information he needs to find the manresponsible for selling Thailands religious treasures to the highest bidder (Whitney 2003).
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fighting spirit to fight the city crooks and finally is able to overcome them all. The head
ofOng Bakis returned to its headless body at Ban Nong Pradus temple hall. Once
again the villagers are able to celebrate their annual festival with their religious faith and
pride in their village Buddhist symbols intact. Their glorious son/boxer has emerged as
a rescuer not only to their village Buddhism, but also a guardian hero to Thailands
national identities and pride in their imagined communities (Anderson 1991).
The film polarizes the countryside and the cosmopolitan Bangkok. Tings
adventurous journey and attention-gettingMuay Thai fights serve as moving mediators
between these two markedly different and contrasting worlds. Ban Nong Pradu
represents an extremely and ideally traditional community. It is the place where its
members have possessed unshakeable faith in their Buddhist institution and moral
leadership. Tradition in the form of Buddhist ceremonies and festivals is their cultural
foundation. Although villagers have endured their lives in poverty and hardship, the
sense of unity and togetherness in their community appears to be strong. In such
environments, popular Buddhist-based ancientMuay Thai knowledge and skills have
been taught and nurtured. In other words, the movie intends to display Ban Nong Pradu
as an ideal Buddhist land, where devout villagers and their traditional ways of life are
posed as authentically fixed images of Thainess. This impoverished land has provided
Thailand and the world not only migrant labor forces (see Mills 1999), but also physical
and spiritual guardians in the form of Thai boxer-heroes to ward off both external and
internal threats to the existence of Thai national identities (see Pattana Kitiarsa 2003).
Some external threats can be seen in foreign tourists and martial arts practitioners, while
internal bad omens are represented by existing social ills, e.g., underground gangster,
drug, gambling, prostitution, and corruption.
Bangkok is the complete opposite to the idyllic Ban Nong Pradu. It is the
cosmopolitan city and center of Thai modern universe. However, Bangkok as displayed
in this film is not the capital city of angels as indicated in its Thai name, but of devils
and crooks. It resembles a typical troubling cosmopolitan city, which could be found in
any third world country. The famous tourist center of Khao San Road is indeed the
center of criminal and illegal activities, ranging from human cockfight, gambling, drugs,
prostitution, and antique treasure smuggling.
In moral and spiritual senses, Ban Nong Pradu and Bangkok symbolize two
contrasting idealized extremes in the Thai cosmology, namely, traditional heaven and
modern hell, respectively. Daily lives of Thai people in the post-1997 economic crash
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have commuted and transported back and forth, in and out, between these two realms.
The human world exists temporarily as a liminally dynamic state somewhere between
these two symbolic realms.
Despite its surreal portrayal of two extreme worlds and its simple action movie
plot, I argue that Ong Bakepitomizes Muay Thai as bodily weapon and as masculine
cultural heritage to transcend and transform both too-obviously idealized, constructed
spaces. In the case of Ting,Muay Thai has carried him through his otherwise impossible
mission.Muay Thai helps erase all cultural capital deficits he certainly possesses as an
unsophisticated young man from the countryside trying to survive in the harsh world of
devils. It elevates him from an ordinary country folk to a prominent status of imagined
national hero in the eyes of his village folks, foreign tourist audiences, and of course,
his real-life patriots and international viewers. It also helps him attain his glory and
heroic role as a defender of Buddhist faith and pride of being Thais. Tony Jas role in
Ong Bakin turn opens up the possibilities of affirming and enhancing the dominant
discourse of masculine heroism in contemporary Thailand.
Buddhism has been threatened in both material and spiritual fronts. Materially,
smuggling and trading of valuable ancient Buddha statues and other religious treasures
as depicted in this film is part of current crimes in Thailand. 20 Morally, such an act
reflects the state of mind and faith in Buddhism by the parties involved, who regard
Buddha statues and other treasures as profitable commodities. Buddhism and other
markers of Thainess, therefore, need to be rescued from greed and lust of complex
forces in contemporary Thailand.
The movie leads us to believe that Thailand needs a hero, especially an ideal
masculine, morally and communally-oriented heroism to save its national identities.
Ting and his extraordinaryMuay Thai talents provide some possible examples of how
the Thai could fight back and stand firm against the merciless attacks of the globalizing
forces. Ting has risked his life to bring back the most invaluable asset to his village. He
also commits himself to the Buddhist ideal for Thai men by temporarily serving the
monkhood toward the end of the story. The story of Ting and his village folks has a
happy ending episode, however, increasing globalizing social problems, like gambling,
drug, prostitution, and underground crime which have been eroding Thai Buddhist-
20For example, in February 2004, the police arrested a gang of thieves with their connection to Bangkok
amulet dealers, who stole ancient Buddha statues and treasures in many temples in Doi Saket, Hod, MaeRim, San Sai, and Saraphi Districts Chiang Mai Province (Lang Bang Gang Chok Phra [Cleansing a
Robbery Gang Stealing Buddha Statues].Khom Chad Luek. February 25, 2004.).
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based cultural values, still remain unresolved and continue to beg for further effective
solutions.
Multiple Voices and Contesting Terrains of Popular Buddhism
Mekhong Full Moon Party [Sip-ha Kham Duean Sip-et] effectively transforms
the mysteriousBung Fai Phaya Nak [Naga Fireballs] into multidimensional and
intertextual fields of discourses on a traditional Thai-Laos belief. The film story is based
on the real-life mysterious Naga Fireballs, which has taken place for generations in the
Mekhong stream running through Phonphisai District, Nong Khai Province,
Northeastern Thailand. Lai (2003) points out that this movie is highly regarded for its
joyous dialogue with ones own folk traditions and accessible representation of Thai-
Laotian mythologies to the international audiences. The film is like a rich ethnographic
document, laying out a broad spectrum of beliefs, argumentation, modes of praxis and
managerial operations around the issue of whether the fireballsare indeed the work of
serpent-god. 21
Miracle, natural, or manmade, this is exactly the starting point of the film. Jira
Malikul22 and his production team demonstrate the complexities and diversities of
beliefs and perspectives people have when they come to view the Naga Fireballs.
Looking beyond the oversimplified polarization concerning the event (a work of nature
or a hoax), Jira personally sees the Naga Fireballs Phenomenon, as it is called by the
locals, as an event of contesting discourses. In his post-production interview, he
comments that thousands of people from all over the country get together along the
river bank on the full moon night of the End of Buddhist Lent interacting and discussing
their own beliefs and ideas regarding a common subject. Everyone has his or her own
version of the Naga Fireballs. This makes the event so special. It reflects the religious
21An English-language Thai media describes the event that the naga fireballs are an annual occurrence,in which reddish pink balls of lightusually in their thousandsshoot skywards out of the Mekhong
River. It usually occurs every year on the full moon night of the 11th lunar month (Reallife Fireballs a
Damp Squib as Rains Come Down. The Nation 2002). In October 2002, when the movie was firstreleased just days prior the real-life Naga Fireballs as part of their smart marketing strategies, the Nation
reports more than 200,000 people flocked to the usually peaceful town of Phonphisai to witness the event.Obviously, there are a lot more than last year, and that might be due to the movie hype, said Boonthan
Netmuk, a resident of Nam Pe Village, one of the most popular spots for viewing the fireballs. Its allcuriosity whether its a miracle or manmade. They want to see it with their own eyes (Ibid.).22For his bio-filmography, Since graduating from the Faculty of Communication Arts at ChulalongkornUniversity, Jira Malikul has cultivated his reputation as a leading director for music videos and televisioncommercials. He has won critical acclaim for both. He became interested in being a film director when hisHub Ho Hin Bangkok Company, a leading production house of TV commercials in Thailand, had an
interest in joining the mainstream movie market. He took this opportunity to develop a personal project afeature film about a mysterious natural phenomenon takes place annually on the bank of the MekhongRiver in Nong Khai province (Pattara Danutra 2002).
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and overall characters of Thai people, who believe that diverse views and faiths can
coexist with a certain degree of tolerance. (Mekhong Full Moon Party 2002).
In this film, multilayers and multivoices are carefully crafted, interwoven, and
placed behind the storyline. For years, a group of local monks, let by Luang Pho (abbot)
Lo, has established their secret base on the Laos side of the Mekhong to manufacture
the fireballs and set them up annually on the auspicious day at the end of Buddhist Lent.
Rather than being seen as a hoax or a criminal act by most authoritative and modern
rational minds, Luang Pho and his fellow monks firmly believe that their invention of
Naga Fireball tradition is nothing but an integral part of their sacred duties as local
Buddhist monks and devout worshippers of the cult of the Naga King, the creator of the
Mekhong and local domains in age-old mythology. They certainly do not view
themselves as myth-makers. Luang Pho repeatedly insists that making the Naga
Fireballs to worship Lord Buddha is meritorious. It is Buddhist monks duties to nurture
and sustain Lord Buddhas religion by planting seeds of Buddhist faith in the publics
mind.
Luang Phos faith and secret behind the Naga Fireballs is tested by Khan, a
young local orphan whom Luang Pho had raised and personally trained to become a
diving expert in placing the Naga Fireballs down in the riverbed. Khan recently returned
from school in Bangkok. Influenced by his modern education and urban experience,
Khan rejects his previously-held myth and faith in the Naga King, taught to him and
inspired by Luang Pho since childhood. Luang Pho is shocked and in despair upon
encountering Khans aggressive rationalization, but decides to keep alive this local
tradition as well as his personal faith in the Naga King, the sacred savior of Buddhism
in the Tripitaka story.
The traditional and modern worlds come into conflict in the opposing positions
adopted by old Luang Pho and young Khan. Possibly regarded as a generational conflict
and clash over their own primordial attachments (Geertz 1966), these opposing
positions are further complicated by the arrival of other authoritative modernist and
rationalist agents.
Dr. Norati represents the educated who subscribe to the scientific worldview.
For people like him, science is the ultimate sanctuary and watershed to whatever
humans want to know. Upholding science over local religious tradition, he argues that
the mystery concerning Naga Fireballs is not a religious miracle, but can be uncovered
with his scientific method. He sets up his experiment to collect data concerning the
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geographical and topographical configurations of the Mekhong and its seasonally varied
currents. He holds a firm hypothesis that the Naga Fireballs are part of natural
phenomena particularly specific to this area. He explains that a fireball appears when
submerged methane is sucked from the riverbed by a sporadically freakish lunar
gravitational pull, and ignites when it hits the air (Quenby 2002). In the film, Dr.
Noratis life and personal faith in science are radically tested and transformed by
episodes evolving around the politics of truth behind the Naga Fireballs. In a public
presentation of his research findings, he is made speechless by a question from one of
his local audiences. Doctor, can I ask if you still adhere to the Buddhist faith?
His dialogue with Luang Pho is central and epitomizes the tension between
Eastern and Western worldviews toward truths about nature and the world. Dr. Norati
tells Luang Pho that human beings desire to unlock the secrets of nature in order to
understand them, explain them, and live with them in harmony. He shares with Luang
Pho a common knowledge that the West emphasizes on conquering material and
physical domains with its science and technology, while the East is the master of
spiritual and ethical spheres. In return, Luang Pho gives him some punch lines of
practical philosophy, for example, we humans have never had an exactly equal length
of one second in each of our heart or commit yourself to what you believe in and keep
up your faith in what you have committed yourself to. The latter motto is perhaps
taken from a popular whisky commercial, which reads, Keep walking.
The existence of the Naga Fireballs draws more challenge from another
rationalist mind. Dr. Suraphon from Khon Kaen University takes an empiricist stance in
his endeavors to prove the Naga Fireballs a hoax. He assumes that the Naga Fireballs
are neither miracle nor natural occurrence, but human invention. While Dr. Norati wins
some local support and his findings imply that clean and healthy environments of the
Mekhong are major factors in guaranteeing the sustainable occurrence of Naga
Fireballs, Dr. Suraphons version is apparently corrupt and opportunistic. He was hired
by an owner of tomato sauce factory from the neighboring Tha Bo District to create
some Naga Fireballs in his area as a proof that industrial wastes from his factory do not
pollute Mekhong River. Dr. Suraphon finally learned his lesson from his arrogant and
egoistic experimentation when one of his divers was killed mysteriously in the riverbed.
Perhaps, the nature is telling us something, said Dr. Suraphon after the tragic end of
his scientific experiment. He finally withdrew himself from his aggressive challenge to
nature, but not to the local community of faithful members to the cult of Naga King.
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Local voices have made their own presence through the roles of the school
master (Khru Yai), who decides to stand up against both Dr. Norati and Dr. Suraphon,
who, in his view, have been hurtingPhaya Nak (tham rai phaya nak). His mission
was to defend the right to existence of Naga Fireballs as the towns traditional domains.
To him, people from outside his town, especially arrogant scientists, have no right to
destroy or uproot local beliefs and traditions for the sake of science. Although he
himself has been teaching mathematics and sciences to school children for years, he
puts his local tradition first. Local dignity, integrity, and continuity must prevail against
what he calls scientific aggression and intrusion of the global forces at any causes.
He decides to humiliate them by damaging Dr. Noratis equipments with some pig
dung. He once exclaims to release his frustration before Teacher Alice that Damn it!
How come globalization (lokaphiwat) has reached Nong Khai so soon? When he was
arrested by the police for his criminal act against Dr. Norati, he sarcastically blasts the
police officer, who once was his student, that Nowadays, scientists are exercising their
authority to establish themselves as new Gods for human beings. Khru Yai voices out
that no one really cares about what would actually happen to local people, their ways of
life, and their once peaceful town. Local people do not care for the business of scientific
truths. Their life and their religious tradition are more delicate and complicate than just
dying to know the secrets behind Naga Fireballs. They are definitely not a guinea pig
for scientists or opportunists. Local people are entitled to the right to defend their own
cultural domain.
While most attention is paid to male-dominated truth seekers or defenders,
female characters like Teacher Alice and Aunty Ong tell their sides of the story too.
Here, once again, the film shows that religious belief and faith are traditionally fostered
by women. Teacher Alice represents thousands of ordinary women who emerge and live
as mediators between the traditional and modern worlds or who situate themselves on
both sides of the dispute. She supports her men, meanwhile making sure that traditional
gender cultures continue to be relevant to their ever-changing community. She adapts
well to her multiple roles as daughter of the abbot in control of the Naga Fireballs
secrets, as a school teacher, an elder sister to the young Khan, and a fiance to Dr.
Norati.
Aunty Ongs wit, charm, and total devotion to the worship of Naga Fireballs
somehow stand firm as satirically contrasting evidence to the male-dominated scientific
or political truth-seeking or-defending enterprises. She is an old lady with a bag full of
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local wisdom and how-to practical tricks to solve almost every aspect of daily
problems. Her keen eyes are trained on every small detail around her domestic domain.
She has inherited her practical knowledge from her parents, relatives, and neighbors,
plus her years of direct experience. When it comes to a religious tradition like the case
of the Naga Fireballs, faith and respect matter most. Her character stands as proof that
local villagers too have carried out something equivalent to scientific experiments for
ages. The difference is that local folk knowledge especially that possessed and practiced
by ordinary women, is usually overlooked or gone unnoticed.
Conclusion: Crisis of Buddhism in the Popular Perspectives
Towards the end ofMekhong Full Moon Party, Luang Phos voice not only
confirms that making the Naga Fireballs is meritorious as it has been part of a local
religious homage to Lord Buddha, but also asserts that the Naga Fireballs indeed should
be perceived as a metaphor of human life. In his own words, the Naga Fireballs
symbolize the fireballs of human life (bung faihaeng chewit manut). The fireball
shoots itself up from the bottom of the river, flashes its reddish light skyward for a
moment, then disintegrates and disappears over the dark sky of the Mekhong. Nothing
in life is permanent. This is actually the moment of truth for everyone. Luang Pho
reminds his audiences that human life does not last long. Dont waste it, live it, and
live it mindfully and righteously well.
Luang Phos interpretation of this mysterious Naga Fireballs lends itself as a
common ground to rethink and recapture the crisis of Buddhism in contemporary
Thailand as it is presented inFun Bar Karaoke, Ong Bak, and Mekhong Full Moon
Party. Reading through these three films, I argue that the films offers far complicated
and engaged visions to evaluate the current situations of Thai Buddhism. There are
problems concerning the Buddhist clergy and their organizations as well as social
problems affecting Thai Buddhism, but those problems have hardly been presented as
crisis or serious threats to the existence of Thai Buddhism in these storylines.
These popular films do not deal with the questions: Is Thai Buddhism facing
crisis? or what causes the crisis? or what possible solutions are? Rather, they ask:
what does it mean to be a Buddhist [Thai] in a religiously pluralistic world? (Tanabe
and Keyes 2002:8). Thais have indeed continued to be religious at heart regardless of
the higher degree of modernization, their society has been experiencing lately. Religion,
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whether they are doctrinal or popular Buddhism or supernaturalism, has been a
pervasive and guiding force for the Thais for generations.
InFun Bar Karaoke, Pu is an apparent example of how age-old superstition is
made meaningful to the people living in Bangkok in pre-1997 burst of the countrys
bubble economy. She consults the fortune-teller concerning her mysterious dream and
strictly follows his instructions. She visits the Chinese-spirit shrine and gives some
offerings to the spirits. She hard-boils 51 eggs and offers them to propitiate the spirits in
her superstitious campaigns to save her fathers life. She should be regarded as an active
nurturer of traditional religiosity in modern-day Bangkok, who weighs a balancing act
between a masculine modern development and a feminine, traditional continuity.
In Ong Bak, popular or village Buddhism prominently dominates the storyline.
Tings extraordinarily masculine prowess inMuay Thai and his die-hard spirit to bring
back the head of the Buddha statue indeed speaks for his village folks collective faith
and devotion. Buddhism has strong roots in their community. It is urban crooks and
sinful influences from people in Bangkok that threaten to disrupt the existence and
continuity of their religious roots.
InMekong Full Moon Party, faith in local Buddhist beliefs and practices is still
firm despite some powerful challenges from influential scientists and other authoritative
agents. It demonstrates that when it comes to religious matters in contemporary
Thailand, being doubtful and searching for alternative visions of truth is possible, but
ultimately religion as a living or performing tradition is concerned more with keeping
faith and making sense of ones personal or communal life situations.
Jira Malikul, the director ofMekhong Full Moon Party, emphasizes that his film
portrays the tolerant and open-minded characters of the Thai when they enter debates
concerning religious beliefs and practices.23Indeed, all these three movies have shown
some similar points. A certain degree of ethnocultural and religious tolerance and
diversity could be found everywhere in this country. I argue that popular perception
tends to impose a greater degree of dynamic tolerance and coexistence than the stance
adopted by state officials, scholars and critics. BothFun Bar Karaoke andMekhong
Full MoonParty apparently encourage the real-life inclusive syncretism (Swearer
1995) of diverse religious faiths. They also imply that local traditions should be
23In an interview with Pattara Danutra (2002), he emphasizes on the realistic quality ofMekhong Full
Moon Party. Said Jira, as this movie deals with the issue of belief, I want the audiences to believe inthe films realistic components too. This is the major reason why he casts unknown actors and actresses
and features mainly Isan (Thai-Lao) dialect in this film.
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preserved and that people have full authority to determine their pasts and futures. In
Ong Bak,popular Buddhism is even considered a true watershed of Thai wisdom and
resource to counter the foreign and devil intruding otherness.
Instead of discussing the crisis of Buddhism, these three movies address more
complex issues concerning the crisis of modernity. They openly criticize global forces
and their negative impacts on local traditions in the era of post-1997 economic crash. In
the meantime, they also display the assertion of local voices and negotiations of
meaning regarding visions of their own religiosity. They tell stories of Thai modernity
and its destructive agents, whether they are the karaoke bar, gambler, drug dealer,
prostitute, foreign tourist, urbanite crook, or morally insensitive scientist, showing them
as complex forces pushing Thailand away from its spiritual and moral strength and
foundation. By placing popular Buddhism in juxtaposition to the challenges from agents
of evil, these movies confirm that popular Buddhism is alive and well. It is perceived as
a foundational source of morality and spirituality for its adherents and the future of
contemporary Thai society.
It is not very surprising that these three movies repeatedly and heavily condemn
the wrong side of Bangkok as the center of immoral otherness to Thailands national
identity. Looking back at the center from the periphery, Bangkok is an unbelievably
strange and troubling place in both spiritual and material senses in Fun Bar Karaoke. It
is the capital of crooks and underground businesses in Ong Bak. InMekhong Full Moon
Party, it is the city of modern civilization which has transformed the young Khan from
a traditional religious boy into an aggressive rational minded young man, who has
developed a strong faith in modern life and technologies (i.e., mobile telephone, mass
media, science, and cosmopolitan lifestyle).
Putting these three films together and exploring them for some religious
resonances, I contend that the most productive way to understand the Thai crisis of
modernity with an emphasis on current popular situation in Thailand is to elude the
temptation to read them through the lenses of various sets of dichotomies which are
constantly presented in the film stories. Scenes of confrontation and contestation
between the global/local, Thai/foreign, traditional/modern, spiritual/material,
female/male are repeatedly shown. However, I would agree with Knee (2003:107) in his
reading ofFun Bar Karaoke that the it does not pass some absolute judgment against
the modern in favor of tradition. Rather, the film suggests a coexistence and
interpenetration of the two realms, although the latter would appear to be ascendant at
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the expense of the former and Pus movement towards greater maturity and emotional
equilibrium appears to involve her coming to understand the balance between these
polarities. Learning to negotiate and appreciate ones cultural roots through balancing
moves between sets of real-life dichotomies is also experienced by Ting (Ong Bak) and
Khan (Mekhong Full MoonParty).
Voices from young people like Pu, Ting, and Khan demonstrate that the realities
of the crisis of Buddhism in contemporary Thailand are far from one-sided and
authoritarian. This is because popular voices from ordinary people and communities
stage their claims for spaces where they can enter into multidimensional and open-
minded discourses with the multiple parties involved.
Bibliography
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Filmography
Angulimala[Ong Kuliman]. 2003. Suthep Tannirat, dir. (Details incomplete).
Fun Bar Karaoke. [1997]2001. Pen-ek Ratanaruang, dir. 120 min. Bangkok: Solar
Marketing. [VDO-CD].
Khun Phaen: Legend of the War Lord. 2002. (Details incomplete).
Kraithong. 2001. (Details incomplete).
Luang Ta (The Abbot]. 1980. Permphon Choeiarun, dir.
Mae Bia. 2001. (Details incomplete).
Mekhong Full Moon Party[Sip-ha Kham Duean Sip-et]. [2002]2003. Jira Malikul, dir.
120 min. Bangkok: Mangpong. [DVD].
Mon Rak Transistor[Transistor Love Story]. 2001. Pen-ek Ratanaruang, dir. Bangkok:
Solar Marketing. [VDO-CD].
Nang Nak. 1999. Nonzee Nimibutr, dir. 120 min. Bangkok: Mangpong. [VDO-CD].
Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior. 2003. Prachya Pinkaew, dir. 105 min. Bangkok:
Mangpong. [DVD].
Ruang Khong Ku: Luang Pho Khun Parisuttho [My Sotry: Luang Pho Khun
Parisuttho]. 2003.95 min. Bangkok: United Home Entertainment. [VDO-CD].
6ixtynin9[Ruang Talok 69]. 1999. Pen-ek Ratanaruang, dir. Bangkok: Solar Marketing.
[VDO-CD].
Three[Arom, Athan, Akhat]. 2002. Nonzee Nimibutr, dir. 120 min. Bangkok:
Mangpong. [VDO-CD].
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