Film Ratings and Censorship in Thailand

March 21 2009, 10:06am

So what exactly are we allowed to see in Thai movies anyway?

In a country where the rule of law is often ambiguous at best, the censorship laws can often baffle television and film fans.

The Thai smoking law, enacted in 2000, forbids the showing of smoking on all local television programs. While local channels are meticulous about smudging up acts of smoking, HBO and Cinemax can show the occasional cigarette or joint lit up because of special freedoms they enjoy as pay cable channels.

Cable provider UBC independently employs a small team of censors who decide appropriateness, such as levels of extreme violence, drug usage or sex. But it’s often difficult to predict which scenes get cut and which ones do not. Inconsistent as the cable monopoly may prove, don’t count on ever seeing women’s nipples or soft-core porn on Thai television. As we saw with Big Brother Thailand recently, even the smallest degree of open affection is still considered taboo.

It should be no surprise that Singapore’s government is the strictest of all Southeast Asian television censors. After all, even the popular HBO show Sex in the City was banned for five years. This is quite ironic, considering Singapore’s airport code is “SIN.” The Singaporean government lifted the ban on the hit series in September 2004, but HBO Asia has been at the mercy of Singapore, much to the dismay of those of us who live outside the island nation. By law, HBO must air only one version of a TV series in all of its 20 Asian markets. Thus, anything the Singaporian authorities want censored is what ends up on our screens in Bangkok.

Regarding Film:

A few years ago, many moviegoers were surprised that the Thai government allowed the showing of the movie Poo Ying Ha Bop, or “sin sisters” in English, because of the film’s controversial nature. Although there wasn’t any outright nudity in the movie, the film did contain scenes of rape, swinging and incest. However, when the VCD was released, many were disappointed to find that the censorship board had cut two of the most provocative scenes. The first involved two girls kissing, while the second was a humorous love scene in which a nurse lost her virginity to a mentally challenged patient. Many argued that the movie wasn’t the same without these scenes.

Traditionally, the Thai police department has overseen film screening and censoring via the Film Censorship Board. If a film contains nudity, extreme violence or culturally offensive material, producers must cut and edit the film in compliance with FCB censors before legal clearance is given. The fact that the FCB was made up of 200 police personal and other government officials as censors was seen by many critics and film buffs as a contradiction to the democratic process. These critics also argued that such a biased system raises questions of constitutional rights and freedoms of expression.

Good News:

The good news is that there are two newer film-related bills, the Films bill and Films Promotion Funds bill, that will transfer film screening responsibilities to the Ministry of Culture. “The government felt that overlooking film content is beyond the role of police,” said Radda Thangsupachai, the director of cultural surveillance for the Ministry of Culture. “[The police] will still have an enforcement role when film regulations and laws are broken, just not be the judges of the content anymore.”

The Films bill is welcomed by many in the hopes that it will replace the outright censorship by establishing a rating system as early as next year that is similar to that used by the Motion Picture Association of America. The bill proposes the creation of the National Film Policy and Planning Board, which will consist of representatives from the film industry, academia, the media and the public, who will evaluate films before another board decides the ratings.

Same Old:

Though this represents another step in the right direction, many remain skeptical. “The bureaucrats will still find ways to censor films if they feel justified that there was an offense to Thai culture, which is always biased,” said a film critic who wished not to be identified. “Many of the previous police FCB censors are also likely to continue to work in the new system.”

More recent years:

As the above part was written a couple years ago, here are a few updates concerning censorship in Thai movies. According this a post on the DailyXpress on censorship there will be a new filmrating system in Thailand starting from May 2009.

The categories of the new filmrating system are as follows:

General Audiences: No sex, abusive language or violence.
Promote: Films that should be promoted on the basis of cultural or artistic merit.
13: No violence, brutality, inhumanity, bad language or indecent gestures.
15: Some violence, brutality, inhumanity, bad language or indecent gestures will be allowed.
18: No exposed genitalia, crime or drugs.
20: Sex scenes are allowed but no exposed genitalia.
Ban: Films that offend the monarchy, threaten national security, hamper national unity, insult faiths, disrespect honorable figures, challenge morals or contain explicit sex scenes.

Fun fact is that Prachya Pinkaew has been involved in drafting the regulations governing the Film Act of 2007. I would have thought he would take less interest in keeping younger people away from his movies (the "18" rating is not supposed to have any crimes or drugs appearing so this will be difficult with Prachyas action mnovies).

But we will have to wait and see how it all turns out and how strict the authorities will be in the end. In the meantime, there is also a more detailed report on the new filmratings system here.

Update May 15 2009:

Starting from June 1, films in Thailand will come with an age classification as mentioned before. This is totally new for Thailand and therefore it has to be seen how the hole thing will work out. The 6 official categories are as follows:

G - films that are suitable for all age groups.
13-plus - films that are not recommended for anyone under 13
15-plus
18-plus
20-plus
P - films that should be promoted

A clause remains that allows the state to ban films that are considered a harm to "national security".

Strangely enough, the ratings are only recommendations. So if a movie in Thailand is rated as 18-plus but you are only 16, then you can still go and watch the movie. EXCEPT for the 20-plus category, where you actually have to be older than 20.

All films will be rated by a committee consisting of 7 people from state agencies that are involved in all kinds of media. Only 3 more people will come from the film industry.

Opinions about the new rules are mixed so far for the following reasons: Filmmakers are not very confident that their interests will be met very good. There is a majority of (conservative) state agency people involved in the rating system and thos eare the poeple who in the past 75 years have rated movies with inconsistently and with double standards. Now it has to be seen if anything changes to the better and that artists will have enough artistic freedom to make films the way they want to.