Sunday, July 27, 2008

Censored


Censorship of movies in Thailand is a bit ridiculous and hilarious. They have no problem publishing pictures of people maimed in road accidents on the front of the newspaper but censor the strangest things on TV and in movies. Here is a list of all the things they feel the need to censor. This mostly just on TV. They generally don't censor movies at the cinema, which a few exceptions:

1. Smoking. If someone is holding a cigarette like my lovely girl crush Scarlett Johannsen is demonstrating there's not a problem. But the minute someone puts the cigarette to their lips they blurr it. I guess they think this will deter people from smoking. It's funny because, like Australia, you can't smoke inside any where but they don't ever bother to enforce it. I just find it really hypocritical and stupid.

2. Drinking. Again, like smoking, they blurr it every time someone takes swig. It's so distracting and annoying.

3. Violence. If someone points a knife at someone BLURR! Point a gun BLURR! Head gets blown off BLURR! Or the scene gets cut completely. Forget about any blood and guts. That would just be CRAZY! But punching people is okay. They don't blurr that.

4. Nudity. You aint gonna see no arse on Thai tv. Or boobs. They just fuzz it from the neck down. Porn movies and magazines are illegal here too. But you can buy it from every DVD store in the city. I just don't see the point in blurring it. You can pay $10 and see a Thai woman shoot darts out of her hoo-hoo for goodness sake!!

5. Sex. I know this is very similar to nudity. But it's the only thing I have every seen blurred at the cinema. I went and saw the SATC movie and all the sex scenes were blurred from the neck down. It was ridiculous! It already has an R rating and everyone there were adults. It annoyed me so much! What did they think they were achieving? I think society is a little over sexualised, it's true, but COME ON!

I just find it beyond stupid. Do they really think blurring it is going to stop people from binge drinking and smoking and having sex? I think they could put this effort into more important things, like helping the homeless and sorting out the traffic problems. I always find it funny when governments waste time and money on useless things. Like the bell tower on the Perth foreshore. Priorities people, priorities!!!!

1 comment:

Annie Spandex said...

LOL, I don't mean to be ethnocentric, because U.S. has it's own hang-ups, but that's pretty funny about them blurring someone drinking or smoking once it goes to their lips...