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Why isn’t Thai media more popular abroad? | ||
Tags: Thai | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio |  | |
| doubleUelle Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4037 days ago 67 posts - 95 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Japanese Studies: Spanish, Thai | Message 1 of 11 13 December 2013 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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So I've recently been getting into Thai movies, TV shows, T-pop etc now that I'm
learning Thai. I don't know what I was expecting (if anything) about Thai media, but I have to say, I've been really impressed. There is a lot of catchy Thai pop. A lot of Thai movies and TV shows have interesting plots and lots of jokes throughout (the humour is very general, easy to understand humour that doesn't seem to rely on a very in-depth knowledge of Thai). My question is: why isn't Thai media more popular abroad? From what I've seen so far, the quality of Thai movies / TV shows so far is better than that of Japanese, for example. (A lot of Japanese movies are **very** slow-paced, making this here internet- generation Westerner bored. And many Japanese dramas have absurd plots.) I don't think the under-valuing (is that a word?) of Thai media has anything to do with the language, because you can easily find stuff with English subtitles. So what gives? Edited by doubleUelle on 13 December 2013 at 6:32pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4175 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 2 of 11 13 December 2013 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I spent 9 days in Thailand a couple of years ago, and I thought their TV was amongst the worst I've seen, especially the music videos. Almost of them played out like a bad student film involving some sort of love triangle in which the woman only existed as some sort of prize between the two male characters. There was even one that ended with one man losing a fist fight and the woman walking away with the winner against her will, as if the woman was obliged to date the victor rather than actually being able to decide for herself. I flicked through a bit, but I can't say I watched anything else for long enough to comment. But I think it's safe to say they're nowhere near the league of Japanese films, which are world class in their originality and production values.
I live in Vietnam (home of the world's worst TV), and I've never seen anything from Thailand here. Korean and Taiwanese soap operas are pretty popular (and awful) though. But to answer your question, the reason Thai stuff hasn't made it abroad is nothing to do with the quality. Korean music is hardly popular because it's good. It's popular because it's marketed well and they have the budgets to back it up. But I'm a big fan of films from all over the world, and I can't think of a single Thai film or director. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| doubleUelle Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4037 days ago 67 posts - 95 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Japanese Studies: Spanish, Thai | Message 3 of 11 13 December 2013 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting. Do you by any chance remember the names of the movies/TV shows you saw
while you were in Thailand? I don't think that sexism (what you imply in your first paragraph) is a big factor for most people. Japanese anime is ***rife*** with overt sexism / passive damsels-in- distress, and that doesn't stop millions of people from watching it.
I'm not a movie connoisseuse, but I think the supposed quality of Japanese films is subject to taste/preference. I for one can't stand most Japanese movies and dramas, because the vast majority are either painfully slow-paced or have outrageously absurd plots. But yeah, I agree that quality isn't the issue per se. I think that economic factors play a huge role. CJK (Chinese-Japanese-Korean) media is well-marketed and backed up by large economies. Edited by doubleUelle on 13 December 2013 at 10:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4670 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 4 of 11 14 December 2013 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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India-made media too (movies and soundtracks of movies).
We even got an Indian soap opera on a Croatian tv channel (something you wouldn't expect) Media in Thai and Malay is difficult to find even on youtube (even compared to Vietnamese media: there are millions of pop songs/videos in Vietnamese on youtube; Thailand and Malaysia are much richer than Vietnam, so we can't blame it all on the economy thing) Edited by Medulin on 14 December 2013 at 5:30pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4774 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 5 of 11 15 December 2013 at 9:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I think I'm With Stupid has a point with marketing. I can only think of two Thai films, Ong Bak and The Legend of Suriyothai (only watched the latter, but too long ago to recall anything specific), and those two seem to have been marketed quite heavily in at least some foreign markets. The former also benefited a lot from the already existing popularity of a certain Thai cultural export, namely Muay Thai. Likewise, the only Thai singer I can think of is Tata Young, on account of a certain song of hers being briefly promoted on Channel V, which was available on cable TV in Kazakhstan back when I was growing up there.
As for Japanese movies and dramas, they never struck me as extremely popular outside Japan. I'm mostly interested in anime, so I don't have much knowledge of the J-drama industry and fan community, but my impression has been that whatever popularity it gets is merely a spillover from the anime and K-drama fandoms, and a marginal one at that. As for feature-length live action films, cinephiles may be fond of some films by Ozu, Kurosawa and Kitano, but I can't think of the last time a Japanese non-anime movie got a worldwide theatrical release. Not quite as bad as the lack of publicity of Thai media, but still.. Edited by vonPeterhof on 15 December 2013 at 9:40am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tlanguell Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4041 days ago 24 posts - 54 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese | Message 6 of 11 15 December 2013 at 10:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm in Vietnam and have noticed a few Thai dramas dubbed in Vietnamese; I recognized some
of the the Thai actors and Thai script in the background. When I was in China I saw some Thai dramas dubbed in Mandarin too. Most of the Thai dramas are formula - boy loves girl but her evil sister or friend wants to steal him, and each episode concludes with a catfight. When I lived in Bangkok I liked to watch the comedies even though I couldn't understand most of it. There was also an interesting program that featured long-running restaurants, often multi-generational establishments. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4175 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 7 of 11 15 December 2013 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd guess that Vietnamese stuff has a stronger presence online because of the large numbers of overseas Vietnamese. Just today, I came back from break time to find my students watching an American Vietnamese film in a combination of English and Vietnamese.
The US is the biggest destination for overseas Vietnamese and Thai people. It has 238,000 Thai people. It has nearly 1.8 million Vietnamese people, so it's really no contest. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lastlife Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6475 days ago 85 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 11 16 December 2013 at 6:27am | IP Logged | ||
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If you're looking for a Thai director with both substance and Western appeal, check out some films by Pen-Ek Ratanaraung. You might enjoy 'Headshot' in particular, an existential thriller about a hitman. Though he's also done the slow paced art-house style films as well, like 'Last Life in the Universe.'
As for Vietnamese cinema I can't offer much but something that really impressed me was Anh Hung Tran's 1995 'Cyclo.' Wow. Intense use of cinematography and visuals, manifesting both the beauty and violence of Ho Chi Minh City. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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