Building bridges through cinema

 A Chinese-made comedy that had the effect of sending thousands of tourists pouring into Thailand earlier this year has pushed the Thai government into realising that cultural products could serve to up the country’s exports to the largest nation in the world.

 “The success of ‘Lost in Thailand’ has definitely created a momentum and cemented the relationship between our two countries, so it’s a good time to bring Thai movies into China,” says the Thai envoy to Beijing, Wiboon Khusakul.

The embassy, which is hosting the first-ever Thai Film festival in the Chinese capital, is introducing Thailand through six selected films, among them GTH’s three-segment comedy-drama “Rak Jed Pee, Dee Jed Hon” (“Seven Something”) and the drama “Shambhala” starring Ananda Everingham and Sunny Suwanmethanon.

Wrapping up today, this the fourth Thai Film Festival to be held in China but the first in the capital. Earlier events were held in Shanghai and ran in parallel with the Shanghai International Film Festival.

Actress Suquan Bulakul from “Seven Something”, “Shambhala” director Panjapong Khongkanoi and popular actor Dome Pakorn Lum, who makes a cameo appearance in “Seven Something” were on hand at the opening to meet fans.

They were joined by the president of the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand Visute Poolvoralaks, who also held meetings with representatives from the Chinese Government to discuss how the two nations can collaborate in filmmaking.

“As the head of a film studio, I’m very interested in working with Chinese studios,” says Visute, who is also the president of GTH.

Visute says the success of “Lost In Thailand” prompted him to look more closely at the potential for expanding the GTH’s reach and investing further in China, adding that the movie had an investment of around three million yuan (Bt14.1 million) but earned more than one billion yuan.

“Looking purely at the investment side, if we were to succeed in co-producing a film with a Chinese film studio by putting in Bt75 million, the cost would really not be much different from making a film in Thailand,” he says.

To Visute, content probably plays an equally important role in achieving success, as it’s not always easy to judge from the outside what Chinese audiences will enjoy watching.

“We don’t live in China so it’s not easy to get it right. If a project comes up that we like and which seems to have the potential for success. I’m ready to take a risk,” says Visute. 

The main problem for the Thai film industry is China’s quota system, which allows a mere 34 foreign movies to be shown annually and thus pits Thai oeuvres against Hollywood mega-hits. Censorship is also an obstacle, as ghosts, violence and homosexuals – part and parcel of many successful Thai films – all fall prey to the censor’s scissors.

To date only two Thai movies have been released in China” “Sing Lek Lek Thee Riak Wa Rak” (“A Crazy Little Thing Called Love”) and “Insee Dang” (“The Red Eagle”). Thanks to the connections between Five Star Production’s chief executive and China, “Insee Dang” also enjoyed a profit sharing deal, the only Thai film to achieve this condition.

Hong Kong director Peter Chan, who is now working in China, has repeatedly said that only big budget films like “Red Cliffs”, “The Warlords” have a chance of becoming blockbusters. And the box office proved him right, that is until two years ago, when Chinese moviegoers flocked to romantic comedy “Love Is Not Blind”. That was followed by the mega hit “Lost in Thailand” and more recently, the low budget “Finding Mr Right”, which as of April 14 had earned almost 500 million yuan

“I always believed Chan but things have changed and it’s no longer true that only big budget films can enjoy success,” says Visute.

The ambassador adds that a great deal can be done to stimulate film industry collaboration between the two countries including persuading China to shoot films in Thailand, co-productions and convincing China to re-categorise its foreign film allocation into Asian and non-Asian movies.

Visute was pleased with his Friday meeting, reporting that the Chinese officials were willing to support co-production, which gets around the annual quota.

“But it’s more complicated when we get down to the details. From the discussion, it seems clear that any collaborative project should be about Chinese people, no matter whether the film is shot in Thailand or China. “Lost in Thailand” best describes the model they are seeking,” says Visute

Following her meeting with the “Lost In Thailand” team last month, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told Thai filmmakers that the Chinese government was very interested in cultural products and willing to support the potential projects.

“But I think the PM was really trying to entice more China films to shoot in Thailand to serve as a boost for the tourism market. In this context, I think the government rather than the studios should take the lead in initiating any projects. I’m not interested in making films that only focus on tourist attractions,” says Visute.

“What we want is the opportunity to invest in China instead because it’s the biggest market and we see that channel is opening for us,” he says.

Wiboon confirms that the embassy is ready to support any cooperation and points to the imminent opening of a Thai cultural centre in Beijing as a venue to promote cultural products and activities to the Chinese people. The envoy is determined to fill the centre with dynamic activities throughout the year and has already planned Thai cooking classes, a summer class in the Thai language study, muay thai and the regular screening of Thai films.

“Through the 36 years that China and Thailand have enjoyed a relationship, we have never seriously explored the cultural exchange approach. Now we are in an ideal position to do that. The political relationship between two countries can change depending on a variety of situations but I believe that cultural products can cross any boundaries and go beyond any other type of relationship,” he says.