Saturday, April 07, 2012

Macbeth too much for Thailand! Play about a king's murder is banned...

Thai film censors have banned a politically charged adaption of the Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth, apparently out of concerns that it could be construed as disruptive to Thailand's still fragile societal strains.

According to an article in a Bangkok-based film publication, Wise Kwai’s Film Journal, censors have banned Shakespeare Must Die, co-directed by artists Samanrat Kanjanavanit, also known as Ing K., and Manit Sriwanichpoom despite the fact that it had received financial support from the Thai Khem Kaeng (Strong Thailand) "creative economy" initiative of the Cultural Ministry's Office of Contemporary Art and Culture.

A trailer for the three-hour Shakespeare Must Die shows that the film “plays on images from Thailand's turbulent and violent political past, including 2010 anti-government red-shirt protests and the 1976 Thammasat massacre, in which a hanging corpse was beaten with a chair,” the film journal reported. The Thammasat massacre was a particularly bloody affair in which students from various universities protesting the return to Thailand of the onetime dictator Thanom Kittikachorn were shot, beaten and their bodies mutilated. At least 46 were killed although many more are believed to have died. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Student in Thailand faces prison for "having opinions" about the king...
  2. Killing in the name of Thailand's king...
  3. Thailand's Crown Prince promotes his dog and displays his topless wife...
  4. Thai activist jailed for seven and a half years for royal 'insult'
  5. Thai activist jailed for 15 years for royal slur...
  6. Thailand lese majeste man jailed for 20 years...
  7. Thailand man accused of Facebook 'insult' to monarchy...
  8. Thailand arrests US citizen for "insulting the monarchy" 
  9. Swaziland set to outlaw anti-king criticism on social networks...
  10. People of Swaziland fed up with King Msawati and his 13 wives...

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