Following the lively discussion generated by the recent New Mandala post on “Thai cinematic war with Burma”, many readers will no doubt be interested in Daniel Ten Kate’s recent Asia Sentinel piece. His article focusses on the status of Chatrichalerm Yukol’s films in the Thai black-market. According to the report:
… even though The Legend of King Naresuan proved one of the biggest draws in Thailand, a pirated copy is nearly impossible to find.
“It’s nowhere,” says one illegal DVD retailer in Bangkok’s notorious Patpong district. “In Thailand we respect the king. Nobody dares to make a copy.”
It’s not entirely true that no copies have been made, as recently the police raided an apartment on the outskirts of Bangkok and found 4,500 pirated VCDs of the King Naresuan films. But that find was rare and surprised many police officials, industry executives said.
By all accounts, most pirates have agreed to avoid copying the flag-waving films directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol, a prince’s son. The military leaders have lauded the patriotism of the movies…
…Another film directed by Chatrichalerm a few years back called The Legend of Suriyothai received similar treatment from DVD pirates. It also dealt with Thais fighting against Burmese invaders, and served as a prelude to The Legend of King Naresuan.
Daniel Ten Kate’s full article is certainly worth a read
7 responses so far ↓
1 Pig Latin // May 25, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Maybe the people who run this site are self-hating Thais? Or maybe this site has been blocked in Thailand??? Ambiguity prevails!
http://www.ethaicd.com/showreview_product.php?pid=31104
2 Lleij Samuel Schwartz // May 26, 2007 at 2:01 am
Re: Pig>
Dear Pig,
In the future, please read a post before you comment on it. The article is talking about the black-market, that is, illegally produced copies…not licensed copies sold by a established retailer. No one is saying you can’t buy a real DVD of King Naresuan; however it is hard to find a cheap, pirated copy.
Sheesh!
3 Pig Latin // May 26, 2007 at 2:53 am
It is? That it was spread over 3 VCD’s and not a DVD led me to believe that it was a camcorder job! I suppose US$13 is a bit much for a pirated copy.
hXXp://cgi.ebay.com/King-Naresuan-Part-1-Thai-Movie_W0QQitemZ320118321454QQihZ011QQcategoryZ617QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
How about these? Even though they are for US$20 the packaging is clearly shifty.
The internet: for all your transparent transactions!
4 Thai Chat // May 27, 2007 at 12:01 am
Unfortunately foreign movies are not as much respected in Thailand. Fakes are plenty !
5 Jon Fernquest // May 27, 2007 at 6:11 pm
“As for now, the illicit market is flourishing. Thailand is among the world’s top-three distributors of pirated films along with China and Russia, according to the Motion Picture Association of Thailand. Although technically illegal, pirated CDs, DVDs and computer software can be found everywhere in Bangkok. Vendors don’t need to hide.”
It’s actually difficult to even tell whether you are watching a fake. If you rent from Tsutaya (Japanese Chain) I would assume you aren’t renting a fake. In the provinces there are a lot of shops that compete directly with Tsutaya that have a lot more films that are a little cheaper but quality is often bad, so people avoid them. With pharmaceuticals it could be the same if people realised it.
IMHO The main problem about IP rights is that without the pirating (like pharmaceuticals) there would probably be no price negotiation to bring the prices down to affordability. The Tsutaya price is probably relatively the same (as percentage of income) as a Blockbuster price in the US, but I doubt it got to that level without the influence of pirating mediating IP monopoly rights a bit.
Overall Thailand would be better without piracy of software and music, I bet. It would force the society to rely more on their own music, films (which they do already, with some wonderful works), and improve open source software for their own needs instead of playing into Microsoft’s hands.
It does seem that pirating foreign media and software is a lot more acceptable than Thai media and software, but that’s probably because there is a realisation that pirating their own stuff is going to have a predatory and negative effect on innovation in Thailand.
The observation the author makes that its probably a powerful person in charge of the piracy, I bet is true. Also most of the actual enforcement seems to be against unlucky unpowerful people, basically entrapment, a setup, a scam by the police, whether it is IP or drug enforcement, they have quotas, and they find a plausible victim to sacrifice, then set him up. I once had someone trying to, rather ridiculously, convince me to make mass copies of CDs, presumably because I had computer skills. I just laughed. I am not a criminal, unless critical thought is a crime.
6 anonymous // May 28, 2007 at 6:29 am
This creates an interesting feedback loop: if Thai producers think that pirates wont pirate royalty-related films, they’ll make more of them. Soon, all Thai movies will somehow be associated with the palace. Pirates, driven for their love of the monarchy but hurt by their inability to sell any Thai films, will increase piracy of foreign films.
The end result: Foreign film-makers get screwed, the monarchy gets free propaganda.
7 just @ // Jun 22, 2007 at 4:05 am
comment one please note
http://www.ethaicd.com
sell only license King Naresuan VCD and DVD not the fake one
-_-”
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