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.