Islamic Injustice by Lauren Hamilton

Lauren Hamilton

English 1102

Dr. Tejada

21 April 2009

The war-torn nation of Afghanistan has been bombarded with multiple governments in the past thirty years. The citizens prospered until the early seventies only to be beaten down by the Soviet invasion at the end of the decade. The Soviets abandoned Afghanistan after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, and as a result, many civil wars ran rampant throughout the country. Because of the incredible state of disorder, the Taliban easily took over in 1996. The Taliban established an entirely new type of government in Afghanistan that ruled the country absolutely by the laws of Islam. Not only did the Taliban strictly follow Islamic law, they took it to an extreme the nation had never seen before and oppressed the people for almost ten years. After the United States overthrew the Taliban in 2003, the citizens began to speak out about their oppression, often through the use of films. Due to the Taliban’s strong ties to Islam, many of the films portray the effects of the extreme Islamic influence in their society.

In looking at Afghan films, one must realize that the Taliban destroyed nearly all the films produced in Afghanistan before 1996. Upon taking over the country, they rummaged through and destroyed the majority of films that they found, as well as the cinemas that showed them. They claimed that films brought unclean thoughts to the minds of Muslims. Therefore, no one produced films until after the Taliban fell in 2001. The Taliban claimed to form their rules from the Qur’an, but other strongly Islamic cultures did not follow the extremes that the Taliban demanded.

The most common theme throughout the films created since 2003 is how the Taliban affected the people. These films mainly focus on the oppression of women simply because they were the most dramatically affected. "Osama," directed by Siddik Barmak, was one of the first films to be created after the liberation of Afghanistan and clearly illustrates the effects of the extreme Islamic rulers. “Osama” follows a young girl after the death of her father and brother. Since there were no men left in the family, her mother cuts off her young daughter's hair to make her look like a boy. By doing this, Osama can escort her mother to her job at the hospital and when the Taliban shut down the hospital, she was able to acquire her own job. However, the Taliban forces her to attend a military school, thinking that she is a boy. Eventually, they discover her true identity and her punishment is living with an old man as his wife rather than being executed. The film mirrors the common day-to-day life of “…Afghani women whose right to exist was all but denied in the name of God” (Dargis).

The first scene exemplifies how the laws to which the Taliban subjected women directly affect them. In this scene, women peacefully protest in the streets for their right to work, which has been denied. The Taliban quickly arrive and the women immediately flee. This scene opens up a film that “paints a depressing dystopia where the word of God is used like a bullwhip on the backs of women.” The scene explains the intense fear that the women have of their oppressors and why that fear exists. The film depicts how the Taliban outlawed jobs for women, saying that the act went against Islam, and also how the women tried to oppose this law. Also, the burkas women are required to wear symbolize the religious oppression felt by the women. Though women in other Islamic nations wear burkas, none are required to wear them except under Taliban rule. Also, under Taliban rule, the burkas had to cover the entire body of a woman and ultimately “erase her female personhood”(Golbahari) . One specific scene in “Osama” emphasizes the result of displaying too much skin. Osama’s mother rides on the side of a bike and her dress accidentally rides up to show her whole foot and part of her ankle. As the camera zooms in to show just her revealed foot, the audience hears the voice of a Taliban religious police saying “Cover your foot. Do you want men to be aroused?” This seemingly simple interaction causes the boy escorting her to refuse to do so the next day- his fear of the Taliban is that great.

At the school which Osama must attend, “the boys are of course instructed in Islam at its most fundamental, in the religious and the social modes” (Kauffman). Not only does the Taliban simply round up the boys of Kabul without prior notice, they force the boys to attend a religious school which doubles as a place for them to learn the basics of the military. The mullahs instruct the boys in the Qu’ran as well as other areas. The scene in which the mullah teaches the young boys how to cleanse themselves after having nocturnal emissions exemplifies the religious teachings at the school. Though the plot barely moves throughout the scene, it lasts for over five minutes. The mullah dictates his directions to the boys several times; the repetition emphasizes how deeply religious the Taliban forced the people to become. By lengthening the scene, Barmak stresses how “Islam is being used here both as a means of spiritual elevation and as a casus belli” by the Taliban’s religious leaders (Kauffman).

After the religious teachers discover Osama’s secret, they put her on trial in front of all of Kabul. Along with her trial are two others: “a foreign photographer arrested for being a foreign photographer” and a woman buried in the ground up to her neck to be stoned to death (Schwarzbaum). Both the people on trial with her are sentenced to death, both of which occur on-site before Osama’s trial. During her trial, the man in charge addresses the crowd as a whole. He does not address them as Afghans, but as Muslims. He does this to make them remember not the strict laws of the nation, but the understood laws of God. He charges her with having acted against all of Islam, not against the small government of Afghanistan. This way, people are less likely to rebel against the decision because they feel less pity for someone who has acted against a religion that they all practice and in which they wholly believe. After they find her guilty of her charge, they sentence her to death. However, the mullah from her school saves her life and accepts her hand in marriage. This offer seems to be preferable until Osama realizes that the mullah is one of the “religious zealots…[who] nonetheless found wiggle room when it came to sex,” (Larsen). The audience discovers that this mullah already has three wives that he has taken unjustly and whom he seriously mistreats. Osama’s sentence to marry the mullah apparently cleanses her soul against the acts she has committed.

Even after the fall of the Taliban, its influence is still prevalent in society. “The Kite Runner,” a film made after the success of the novel by the same name, is currently banned in Afghanistan. The Culture Ministry says that “some of the film’s scenes will arouse sensitivity among some of our people" (Halbfinger). The ministry supposedly speaks of the scene in which an Afghan boy is raped by his foes. The four main characters, all children, had to be transported out of Afghanistan to United Arab Emirates after they had completed filming the scene in order to keep the children safe. No doubt that the prevalence of Islam played a large part in this decision. The scene seemingly goes against what the Qur’an allows followers to view, though the film is similar to other films about the oppression of the Soviets and the Taliban. Directors say that they wish to create thought-provoking films about the history of Afghanistan, but the Ministry will only allow them to create simple love stories and comedies, not unlike those seen in neighboring Bollywood (Halbfinger). The Ministry claims that “the people of Afghanistan want to be like America or Germany overnight. They don't understand that it takes hundreds of years to become like them…to advance along Islamic lines takes time” (Hartill). Now, the banned film would be too shocking to the conservative Islam culture.

The fundamentalist Islamic government changed the culture of the people by eliminating films, forcing the women into the shadows of the nation, and outlawing many normal behaviors- all in the name of God. The consequences of this oppression are now expressed through the use of films. However, just as the religions of a nation can change films, a film can affect the number of people who follow a religion and how closely they follow it.



Works Cited

Stanley Kauffmann. (2004, March). Islam: Two versions. Review of Osama. The New Republic, 230(8), 22-23. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 617984581).

Desson Thomson. (2004, February 20). The Veiled Threat of Life Under the Taliban :[FINAL Edition]. Review of Osama. The Washington Post,p. C.01. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from ProQuest National Newspapers Core database. (Document ID: 547591061).

Manohla Dargis. (2004, February 6). Movies; REVIEW; A curtain parted in Afghanistan; A girl glimpses equality under the Taliban when she masquerades as a boy in 'Osama.' :[HOME EDITION]. Review of Osama. Los Angeles Times,p. E.3. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from Los Angeles Times database. (Document ID: 538903051).

http://www.opendemocracy.net/arts-Film/article_1769.jsp

Lisa Schwarzbaum. (2004, February). OSAMA. Review of Osama. Entertainment Weekly,(751), 56. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 551858281).

Halbfinger, .http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/world/asia/16kiterunner.html

Hartill, Lane. http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1207/p07s01-wosc.html

Josh Larsen. (2004, March). Taliban Days. Review of Osama. The American Enterprise, 15(2), 46. Retrieved April 16, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 546209831).

Hinduism

Brian Forsyth

Dr. Manuel A. Pérez Tejada

English 1102

16 April 2009

Indian Films: A Cast of Different Castes

India produces more films per year than any other country. These films are influenced by the Hinduism religion, which leads to the prevalent portrayal of the caste system in many of them. However, many films subtly criticize this caste system by having characters who do not understand the caste system and go against it, representing the change of ideals as a result of westernization. The films Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai(2000) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge(1995) show the lifestyle of Hindu people and the status of the different castes through different filming techniques as well as question whether the levels of the different castes are decreasing to create a more unified Hindu population.

Hinduism is the most dominant religion in India, with about 80 percent of Indians following Hindu teachings. Hinduism teaches that three Lords rule the world: Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the preserver; and Shiva, the destroyer. Even though Hindus believe in the three Lords along with many other gods, they believe in only one supreme God, and all the different gods are various forms of one universal being. The caste system is very important to the Hindu religion and greatly affects the country as a whole. Four main castes exist in the religion: Brahman, the priest caste; Kshatria, the warrior caste; Vaishya, the business people; and Sudra, the common peasants and workers. The people below these castes are the untouchables, and any members of the four castes are not to come in physical contact with these people. Each caste is divided into sub-castes depending on a person’s profession within the caste. Members of each caste are only supposed to marry within their caste and interact socially with those in the same caste. People are born into a caste and it cannot be changed. The caste system was abolished in 1949, but it can still be seen throughout the Hindu people of India (Robinson). Bollywood films tend to feature love interests between members of different castes to create the tension of a forbidden love.

Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai tells the story of the relationship between Sonia, the daughter of a high caste millionaire, and a lower caste car salesman, Rohit. Rohit encounters Sonia when he drops off a new car for her birthday present and he decides to sing for her at her party. Initially, all of the higher caste partygoers observe Rohit from a high angle shot, while Rohit observes the party from a low angle. The utilization of the camera angles to show the higher caste looking down at the lower, and the lower looking up at the higher, is very important to show the separation between the lovers. As the song progresses, everyone is on the same level, dancing together – and everyone is equal, which shows subtle criticism of the caste system. The younger generation does not follow the rules of the caste system as strictly as the older generations, which shows the trend toward a population of greater equality. Sonia’s father represents the staunch adherence to the values of Hinduism of the older generation through his great outrage that this love ever came to be. After the intermission, the movie takes a big turn when the action ends up in New Zealand, which digresses from the Indian and Hindu culture other than the Indian characters in that portion of the story. I will not discuss that part of the plot since it lacks pertinence to this analysis.

Films must be certified by the Central Board of Film Certification, which was created by the Cinematograph Act of 1952, to be screened in India (“Cinema in India”). This board is an extremely controversial subject because it has the power to deny certification “on grounds that it may affect law & order, foreign relations and security or integrity of the country” (Sharma). These particular reasons allow the government the power to declare that a certain part of a movie might offend a person, which could cause political unrest. The certification is based solely on the opinion of the Board. Many foreign films do not get certifications because the Board wants to keep Indian films in the country, so people will put money back into the economy instead of flowing to other countries; however, the Board has a lot of influence over the domestic films as well. A more concrete censorship exists as well that outlaws sexual scenes, instead of leaving the censorship to the opinion of the Board. Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai maneuvers around this censorship by implying more intimate scenes through the use of the cut scene. When Sonia is drinking in the lifeboat, Rohit comes over and takes her bottle of alcohol. The scene starts during the night, and Sonia says “if you finish my bottle off . . . I’ll finish off you.” She pushes him to the floor of the boat, the camera focuses on the cable holding the boat being let out, then a cut scene advances the plot to a sunny day where the pair wakes up away from the boat in the ocean alone near an island. Use of the cut scene implies the intimate moment that resumes when they profess their love to each other on the island.

The role of the woman in the family is very important to Hindu culture. In a typical family, the woman acts “as [a man’s] servant in duty” (V). Both movies show this aspect of the Hindu family life. In Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, Rohit’s aunt does all of the housework and cooking. Normally, the man is responsible for earning money, but since Rohit’s uncle is retired, he now gets to relax, but the role of the woman stays the same in relation to her previous duties. In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jeyenge, the grandmother and the mother help with the housework and cooking. A Hindu family “usually [consists] of three or four generations living together,” which is clearly represented through the very large family that welcomes Simran back from Europe (“Heart of Hinduism”).

Child Marriage is another common practice of Hindu families (“Heart of Hinduism”). The problem of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jeyenge results from Simran’s father arranging her marriage to his friend’s son, Kuljeet. Simran goes on vacation before her wedding and falls in love with Raj, an Indian she meets during trip. This new love is very problematic because Simran was only allowed to go on the trip under the condition that she would not betray her father’s trust, which she clearly did through this new love interest. The problem that arises from this situation is criticism of the practice of girls being arranged to marry strangers they have never met. The arranged marriage shows the father’s adherence to the older beliefs of the Hindu culture, whereas Simran wanting to fall in love shows the influence of westernization on the younger generation of the Hindu culture. The man is the ruler of the house, though, so he really has the final say as to whether or not to cancel the wedding that had been arranged at her birth. Simran and her mother follow the traditional role of the subservient woman who adheres to the wishes of the male head of house.

These contemporary Indian films also show the influence of Hollywood, which appeals to the general population in India as well as a wide number of people around the world. Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai especially demonstrates the influence of Hollywood through its fast paced action sequences involving Rohit. The globalization of this cinematic style makes Indian films much more successful on screen in other countries. The Hinduism religion and government are unable to prevent the distribution of films to other countries, and they would be unlikely to refuse to grant a certificate to films from India, because the Board wants to keep money spent on film viewings within the country. Unless some highly offensive scene occurs in a movie, the censorship is more likely to apply to movies coming into the country rather than the Indian films produced in the country.

The Hinduism religion plays an important role in different qualities of Indian cinema. The caste system is still a prevalent issue in terms of marriage and relationships, even though it was abolished in 1949, as Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai shows. An important element to note is that the younger generations have changing beliefs from the older generations due largely to westernization, which reduces the affect of the caste system, but they still maintain the fundamental ideals of the Hindu religion. Even though about 80 percent of the entire population of India is Hindu, the government is secular and censors movies based more on moral values such as sexual scenes, as well as scenes that might provoke a problem within the country. Films coming in from other countries are much more likely to be censored than those produced within India. The depiction of family life is derived from the everyday lives of the citizens, who live with large extended families that have specific roles and places for men and women. These two contemporary Bollywood films depict lifestyles of the Hindu culture similiarly, to the extent that most of the age-old values are still being followed – with some changes due to westernization.

Works Cited

"Cinema in India~ Film Censorship." Encyclopedia of Indian Culture,India's Culture,Art and Architecture,Cultures of India,Culture and Heritage of India,Customs and Culture of India,Culture of Indian People,Indian Culture and Heritage,Cultures of India. Culturopedia. 15 Apr. 2009 .

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Dir. Aditya Chopra. Perf. Shahrukh Khan and Kajol. DVD. Yash Raj Films, 1995.

"Heart of Hinduism." Welcome to the Heart of Hinduism. 2004. ISKCON Educational Services. 15 Apr. 2009 .

Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai. Dir. Rakesh Roshan. Perf. Hrithik Roshan and Amisha Patel. DVD. Film Kraft, 2000.

Rakesh, Sharma. "An Appeal to the Government of India." Letter to Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Govenment of India. 12 Oct. 2005.

Robinson, B. A. "Two Negative Behaviors by Hindus: The Caste System & Denigration of Women." ReligiousTolerance.org by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. 7 Oct. 2007. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. 15 Apr. 2009 .

V, Jayaram. "The Status of Women in Hinduism." Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and Other Resources. 2007. 15 Apr. 2009 .

Recurring Themes of Jewish Cinema with National Overtones

Blair Kim

Professor Perez Tejada

English 1102 Section D2

20 April 2009

Recurring Themes of Jewish Cinema with National Overtones

Although Jews have been creating films for decades, it was not until the 1950’s that Jewish cinema really started to create a name for itself and blossom into the unique film class it has become now. This was because the state of Israel only came into existence in 1948, and the country has constantly been under political and social turmoil. Israeli cinema suffered along with the state, continuously fluctuating in not only its content but its reception as well. Only recently has Israeli cinema gained recognition and international respect. “…the past two decades have witnessed an impressive burgeoning of interest in cinematic constructions of the Jew” (Rosenberg 1).

Jewish cinema is made up of several recurrent themes that can be seen in most Israeli films. The first is that Israeli cinema is not equipped to represent the Jew but more of the Jewish community as a whole. “It is presently less a matter…of how authentic or inauthentic, how favorable or unfavorable, is the representation of the Jew…on screen. It has come to be more important to consider what the ethnic screen image says about the civil society from which the film emanates” (Rosenberg 1). However, the Jewish cinematic experience is designed not to isolate the Jewish community in a protective bubble but to reveal its interaction with the entire world. It is only through the context of Jewish cinema that we are given a glimpse into how Jews desire to be perceived rather than the manner in which they currently are seen. “The Jew on screen, moreover, does not function in a vacuum but is part of a larger fabric of experience that binds Jew and non-Jew inextricably. The notion of a ‘cinema of Jewish experience' is only a provisional – and, to some degree, wishful – designation. But it aims at comprehending the world portrayed in a film as a multidimensional while, larger than any one character, scene, or signifier – a complex construction that, though the product of artifice, visual artistry, and narrative strategies, grows from a given society and era and, at its best, engages the spectator in a philosophical conversation with that larger context” (Rosenberg 2). Nonetheless, the overwhelming subjects that appear time and time again in Jewish cinema are the two Jewish crises of the past century: the extermination of European Jewry and the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict that arose from the formation of the state of Israel. By studying these two premises, especially the “postwar world, of Nazi sympathies, anti-semitism, racism, and the genocidal impulse as they bear on the content and interpretation of film” (Rosenberg 3), Israeli cinema aroused interest initially in Israel and in turn became an overwhelming preoccupation with the controversial subjects of mass culture: race, religion, class, ethnicity, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation. This obsession with cultural arguments has led to Israel and the Jewish people beginning to question their national identity. “The important input of the new critical discourse of national cinema is that it is not simply a study of how filmmaking reflects a specific ideology or serves as an agent of that ideology. Rather, films gain special cultural meaning and added value through their engagement with the explicit concerns of their local audience and the deeper layers of collective fears and desires that inform the drama of national identity” (Avisar 126). The Zionist movement has arisen from the core of these questions and has become an answer to those questions of national identity. Young people in Israel especially have been seeking an answer in Jewish cinema to the question of what their national identity is. “The ideological insistence of Zionism that Jewish identity is primarily a national identity in the terms of shared collective experiences and “historical destiny” (Avisar 129). This essay will focus on the Israeli independent film Walk on Water (2002) that serves as a comingling of several Jewish recurrent cinematic themes. These themes are posed as dilemmas, internal and external, that the main character Eyal must wrestle with. Many of these dilemmas force Eyal to pick a side of an issue and support it.

Without even watching the movie, it can be gathered that the Jewish perspective plays a role in the film Walk on Water. This is evident from the title alone in that it refers not only to a certain scene in which two characters pretend to walk on water but also to the Jewish reference of the story of Jesus walking on water.

In Walk on Water the main character, Eyal makes his living by working for the ruthless Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad. One particular assignment requires him to go undercover and befriend the grandchildren of a surviving Nazi war criminal. It can be inferred from the subject of the assignment alone, that the Jewish people, and in particular, the Mossad, still hold some sort of grudge against the Nazis over half a century later for the religious persecution and extermination of European Jews. The resentment the two characters representing the Mossad have for the Nazis is apparent in their personal histories and background as well as the purpose of their mission. The roles have been reversed; the Jews are exterminating the Nazis.

In one particular scene, the fight between Axel and the German skinheads in the subway station, we see a glimpse into the Jewish animosity with the German people. But the scene not only has an individually violent sensation to it but a national one as well. “This scene of neo-Nazi violence forms clear links between the National Socialist era and contemporary Germany. Eyal, for whom Germany continues to be overdetermined by the policies and actions of the Third Reich, associates the neo-Nazis’ attack on the drag queens with Nazi violence against Jews. The scene contains many indications of his feeling of discomfort in the space of Berlin” (Baer). The overtones of international uneasiness as well as individual discomfort in this scene bring together the character with the nation that they represent. Eyal must make decisions that he thinks are in his nation’s best interest while altogether forgetting his own welfare and beliefs. “In the context of the scene, Eyal’s act of successfully defending the drag queens against the neo-Nazis’ physical attack would seem to serve as a validation and reinscription of his Zionist masculine identity. However, the scene is filled with indications of a transformation in Eyal’s identity and of his increasing disinvestment from the Zionist project” (Baer).

In the fight in the subway station, there appear to be two parties, Eyal, Axel and Axel’s friends versus the German skinheads. However, this is not the case, there are three parties. The third party is the group of drag queens who, when defended by Eyal, serve as a manifestation of his transformation. This far along in the film, the audience is aware that Eyal would never reveal a glimpse into his true nature unless something very important to him was at stake. In this case, Axel’s (and Eyal’s as well) friends were in jeopardy, and Eyal stepped in to protect something that had meaning to him.

These situations and characters “provides a canvas for Fox’ exploration of lingering legacies of the Holocaust and the traces of the past still active in the present” (Lys 4).But there is not only animosity between Jewish Eyal and his German targets. There is the potential for friendship as well. In Eyal’s conversations with Axel, we can see that he genuinely treasures their friendship and it is a peek into “the possibility and terms of German-Jewish reconciliation” (Baer).

Israeli cinema also seeks the converse of censorship as well. This is to shock its audience and perhaps cause it to raise questions about taboo subjects. One example that comes to mind is when Eyal first realizes that Axel, the grandchild of the Nazi war criminal, is homosexual. Homosexuality is strictly forbidden in the Jewish religion, and its presence in an Israeli movie forces the film’s audience to raise new questions about the controversies of mass culture. Upon rudely finding out that Axel is gay, Eyal is shocked and taken aback. It is clear he had not considered this possibility, and his reaction is typical and expected. However, as the film continues, his growing comfort and rapport with the situation causes the audience and even Eyal himself to question his own sexuality. In addition, Eyal begins to finally revise his slowly transforming perspective and position on homosexuality as well. “Eyal shows a heretofore-unprecedented openness to the topic of gay sexual practices; he displays curiosity about the dynamics of anal sex, and he expresses particular interest in the degree to which gay men are “easygoing” in terms of crossing boundaries of nationality” (Baer).

In conclusion, Jewish cinema is chock full of undertones and recurrent themes. Specifically, the extermination of the Jews during the Holocaust and the postwar relationship between the German people and the Jewish people is the paramount theme while the controversial subjects of mass culture such as race, religion, class, ethnicity, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation seem to be secondary. Overtones of the Zionist movement are also prevalent throughout the film in the context of national identity, and the multi-faceted interaction between the Jewish people and the entire world rather than the Jew as an individual. Many of these themes are evident in the 2002 film Walk on Water and the majority of them pose as dilemma’s that the main character, Eyal, must wrestle with.

Works Cited

Avisar, Ilan. The National and the Popular in Israeli Cinema. Vol. 24, No. 1. Tel Aviv University, 2005. pgs. 125-143.

Baer, Nicolas. “Point of Entanglement: The Overdetermination of German Space and Identity in Lola + Blidikid and Walk on Water.” Transit: A Journal of Travel, Migration and Multiculturalism in the German-Speaking World. The University of California: Berkeley, Department of German, 2008. <http://german.berkeley.edu:8002/transit/2008/articles/baer.htm>

Lys, Lynley Shimat Visceral Holocaust:Film and the Haptic Representation of Jewish Trauma. LU Marks. <essaysandplays.weebly.com>

Rosenberg, Joel; Stephen J. Whitfield. “The Cinema of Jewish Experience: Introduction.” Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History. 22, No. 1-2 vols. New York: IU Press, Winter/Spring 2002.

Shohat, Ella. “Making the Silences Speak in Israeli Cinema.” Israeli Women’s Studies. Ed. Esther Fuchs. Rutgers University Press, 2005.

Buddhism in Ong Bak

Joshua Lee

Professor Perez Tejada

English 1102 Section D2

21 April 2009

The Globalization of Buddhist Thai Cinema

In the southeastern region of Asia, Thailand, a country whose influences have hardly scraped western borders, has ascended into the global cinema industry in the past few decades. However, Thailand’s merge to globalization was not completely intentional. The pressure to be current and to be economically sustainable accumulated greatly, especially after the economic crisis in 1997, when Thailand’s currency baht lost more than half its value in relation to the US dollar. Due to Thailand being a unique nation whose films are hugely influenced and censored by Buddhist traditions and beliefs, the country’s cinema has been reluctant to meet international film standards for so many years. However, it seems that as the nation is now more open to foreign ideas, religion and culture’s regulation on Thai films are becoming increasingly more relaxed. To translate the authority Buddhism has on what appears on screen in modern Thailand, two recent Thai movies Ong Bak (2003) and Ong Bak 2 (2008) will be analyzed.

The national religion of Thailand is Buddhism which is practiced by more than 95% of its citizens (Mulder). Buddhism is one of the three pillars, the other two being nation and monarchy, that greatly influence the identity of Thai society and culture. Much like the Ten Commandments in the Bible, there are five precepts that Buddhists must follow in order to practice their morality. These are to avoid: deliberately causing the death of any living being; intentionally taking for one’s own the property of another; sexual misconduct, particularly adultery; lying and breaking promises; and lastly, drinking alcohol and taking stupefying drugs, which lead to a weakening of mindfulness and moral judgment (Dhammaloka).

The precepts are used as a guideline for almost any industry in Thailand, including the Film Censorship Board, which is constituted of over two hundred police personnel and other government officials (Yamsaka). In addition to the 1930 law giving the police the right to censor films, Thailand’s Film Censorship Board implements strict censorship that forbids films violating moral and cultural norms as well as films disrupting the public order and national security. Therefore, any encouragement of immoral behavior listed in the five precepts is prohibited. The Board has a responsibility to ban any films that can insult Buddhism in any way like the film Sang Satawa involving monks playing a guitar, even though this film has international recognition. However, for films that display immoral activity as described in the precepts, a virtuous message has to be demonstrated to the viewers that consequences will occur as a result of violating Buddhist principles.

A valid example of a film which exhibits these religious beliefs is Prachya Pinkaew's Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (known as Ong-Bak: the Thai Warrior in the US). It has a moral story depicting Buddhists upholding their faith while in a corrupt environment. Tony Jaa, who plays the protagonist Ting, is a Buddhist training to be a monk. He is specialized in a form of martial arts called Muay Thai, a part of Thai national heritage that is honorably used to defend the three pillars. The film begins with the decapitated head of the town’s idolized Buddha statue, called Ong Bak, being stolen by thieves from the city. This loss dramatically diminishes the spirit of the villagers causing one woman to panic. She claims disaster will come to the village. A task then becomes entrusted to Ting to bring back Ong Bak and save the village from ill prophecy.

The village represents the heart of Buddhism and Thai culture. The film presents the Buddhist monk, the temple, and the image of Buddha as symbols of peace and happiness, completing the identity of the village as a Buddhist community. Also, the village idealizes an extremely traditional Thai society where its people cast a strong sense of unity and togetherness despite impoverished conditions. The loyalty and strength derived from his people is what enables Ting with exceptional Muay Thai abilities to be elevated to an admirable position. This type of rural hero is usually found in Thai action films drawing a substantial audience who are typically from such a community. The Film Censorship Board allows this kind of film that can promote nationalism and morale through a visual experience of courageous and righteous actions.

The path that Ting travels is one of many hardships testing different aspects of his faith. On his search to find the lost icon, Ting becomes engulfed in a totally contrasting world from what he is used to. He enters Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, where the director deliberately reveals the city’s unprincipled sectors – on the crime pits littered with devils and crooks. This setting is where Ting must act like the exemplary Buddhist citizen by whom Thais can learn the appropriate actions for each strategic situation. If his actions proved otherwise, the movie would have characteristics that would encourage its censorship.

One instance when Ting acts according to traditional Thai manners is when he first encounters George, a former villager gone “urban”, who was harmed for attempting to scam money from a motorcycle race. Because it is of Thai demeanor to be non-confrontational by avoiding public dispute or criticism at all times, Ting does not care to ask questions. Instead, he stays true to his task and requests George’s help to find an address of the man who he believes has the stolen Buddha head. George deceives Ting by stealing his money and runs to a bar to bet on illegal boxing matches. After realizing the deception, Ting follows him and performs another instance of Buddhist reservation and Thai behavior. A foreign boxing champion calls out Ting for a match, but Ting ignores him. Enraged, the boxer attacks a helpless waitress and almost brutally murders her boyfriend. Preventing the boxer from breaching a precept, Ting jumps in and physically teaches him the Buddhist lesson that “selfishness and craving result in suffering” (Pra).

A film that may have defied censorship with its borderline extreme violence is Prachya Pinkaew's prequel Ong Bak 2, which did not seem to have anything to do with Ong Bak other than having Tony Jaa as the main actor as well. The movie is about one and a half hours of fighting and a plot that could fit into one sentence. An orphan boy named Tian is taken in by the leader of guerilla group to be raised as a bandit specializing in all kinds of martial arts with the purpose in life only to seek vengeance for his father Lord Rajasena’s assassination. As far as any Buddhism elements goes, the only time a religious icon had any role in the film was at the very end when the screen faded to a Buddha statue then faded to the credits. The glimpse of the statue echoed a subdued overarching theme that Buddhism guided the events in the movie. The statue possibly foreshadowed a sequel (in the future Ong Bak 3) based on the Buddhist premise that “life does not begin with birth and end with death, but rather that every person has several lives based upon the lessons of life not yet learned and acts committed (karma) in previous lives” (Masavisut).

From Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior to Ong Bak 2, a noticeable trend is occurring in the action-adventure realm of Thai cinema. It is diverting from Thailand’s nationalistic ideals towards an effort to be more globally accepted. Tony Jaa’s artistic fighting performances are rivaling those of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. However, the plot and cinematography of his and other Thai films are not up to par to modern Hollywood’s standards. It happens that as an effect, Buddhism, once with an undeniable stronghold on the Thai film industry, is losing its grasp, even though it will always be an integral component as decided by the Censorship Board and probably the Thai people as well.

Furthermore, amidst the cinematic reformation, the Censorship Board’s influence becomes demoted in regulating films due to a tremendous step for globalization in the Film and Video Act of 2007, which utilizes a rating system for film censorship; its judgment precedes or supersedes the Censorship Board’s judgment. It is a looser system that even allowed an extremely graphic and gory Thai film Chuead Khon Chim (translated as Carve Before Tasting about a mentally disturbed shop owner who uses chopped-up human meat in her dishes) to show in theatres in Thailand. New methods of censorship are proving to catalyze Thailand to establish a foothold in the international stage. Globalization is clenching the reins and Thai national cinema is shaping to conform to global trends while maintaining Buddhist and cultural ideals.

Work Cited

Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre Editor. What Is Buddhism? Perth: The Buddhist Society of WA (Inc), Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre, 2003.

Masavisut, Nitaya. “Kindling Literature Flame: Then and Now.” In Thai Literature Traditions, edited by Manas Chitakasem, 1-28. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press, 1995.

Mulder, Neils. Inside Thai Society. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2000.

Pra Daksinganadhikorn. Buddhism. 2^nd ed. Bangkok: Thai Watana Panich Press Co., Ltd., 1973.

Yamsaka, Naiyana. “The Film Promotion Policy of Thai Government.” Thammasat University, 1997.