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Why isn’t Thai media more popular abroad? | ||
Tags: Thai | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio |  | |
| Thuan Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6932 days ago 133 posts - 156 votes  Speaks: Vietnamese, German*, English Studies: French, Japanese, Romanian, Swedish, Mandarin | Message 9 of 11 16 December 2013 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | ||
Few films from non-English speaking countries get a worldwide theatrical release, but it's hard to deny that Japan has a lot to offer when it comes to great movies. In fact, I can think of few countries with such a great variety of movie directors. Some contemporary movie directors from Japan that I like ( -Yamada Youji: "Twillight Samurai" (nominated for an Academy Award), "Kabei - Our Mother" -Koreeda Hirokazu: "Nobody Knows" (won two awards in Cannes), "Like Father Like Son" (just won the Jury Prize in Cannes this year). He's Japan's contemporary Ozu. "Still Walking" is imho a modern version of "Tokyo Story". "I wish" was great, as was his TV-Drama "Going my Home". -Takita Youjiro: "Departures" (won the Academy award for best foreign language movie in 2008), "When the last sword is drawn" Takeshi Kitano: Sonatine, Hana-Bi, Zatoichi - I like most of his movies, even the comedies and the recent "Outrage"-series -Yamashita Nobuhiro: "Linda, Linda, Linda"; "Drudgery Train"(if you like Bukowski, you'll love this film); "Tennen Kokekko"; "My Back Page" - a young director with an incredible filmography so far. I expect a long career. -Mitani Koki: one of the most beloved movie directors in Japan and every single film he's involved in is great. "Welcome back, Mr.McDonald" is probably my favorite, but I quite enjoyed last year's ステキな金縛り - A Ghost of Chance. -Miyazaki Hayao: he is Ghibli. -Sono Sion: "Love Exposure", "Land of Hope" --Matsumoto Hitoshi: Symbol, Sayazamurai - All three films he's shot so far were unique, well-made and highly entertaining. Could become a major director in the future. -Iway Shinji: All about Lily Chou-Chou, Swallowtail Butterfly, Hana & Alice. A good example of "artistic" Japanese mainstream movies. Out of his movies, "All about Lily Chou-Chou" is my favorite. Japanese movies are not better known because of their marketing (their target market is Japan; that's why they hardly market their films abroad), but because of their quality. Yamada Youji, Koreeda, Sono Sion, Takeshi Kitano, Kawase Naomi, Miyazaki Hayao are often shown at festivals around the world (and awarded prizes) simply because they're some of the best movie directors right now. And (with the exception of Kawase Naomi) they're also popular in Japan and other Asian countries (like Korea, HK, and Taiwan - Vietnam is the exception; Japanese movies have never been popular in Vietnam) I've seen quite a lot of Thai movies and there are two Thai directors that I absolutely adore: Apichatpong Weerasethakul (won several prizes in Cannes), Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (Last Life in the Universe) Thai action movies are well-known among MA fans (Ong Bak, Tom Yum Goong, Chocolate), but their novelty lies mostly in the brutal stuntwork that used to be common in HK. I don't think that their quality is in any way comparable to classic action movies from HK or other Asian countries. Thai TV? My mum used to watch Thai TV all the time, and I'd have to agree with "I'm With Stupid": That's some of the worst TV shows I've ever seen. I prefer Japanese TV. Vietnamese TV (and movies) are actually worse than Thai TV. Tran Anh Hung's films are the best Vietnamese movies from the past decades, but he's not really representative as his movies are French productions and different from anything else that you can find in Vietnam. The quality of Vietnamese movies has gotten better in recent years, but I have yet to see anything resembling the quality of Tran Anh Hung's work or the best movies from other Asian countries. All in all, I think it's fair to say that movies from Japan, Korea, HK or China are better known worldwide because they are generally of a higher quality than movies from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, or Indonesia. Edited by Thuan on 16 December 2013 at 8:30pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6704 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 10 of 11 17 December 2013 at 4:45am | IP Logged | ||
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One of the reasons that anime and K-dramas have become so popular outside their home countries is that they were essentially some of the best cheap shows available. This is especially true of anime in the America in the 70s and 80s, when American studios would take completed projects and just had to edit and dub them. The exporting of K-drama was subsidized by the Korean government after the Asian Financial Crisis when they decided to develop cultural products for export.
At the same time, I am aware of an interest in Thai horror films (a genre that has devotees that really seem to go in strange directions) in America (or at least the English-speaking Internet), though it's not touted as anything more than competently done Asian horror. 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 11 of 11 17 December 2013 at 2:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Japanese horror movies are really popular outside Japan.
There must be more than 30 of them a year, all all are quite good. Some like Grotesque were banned from showing in the UK for their graphic content. Edited by Medulin on 17 December 2013 at 2:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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