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Thai Tv Crying Jag


panadolsandwich
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Well if you tuned in to Thai TV this week it was a ceaseless crying jag. Quite literally. Some young defenseless female children are bullied , yes bullied, then made to cry in almost every scene whilst (mostly) unsympathetic crones, too many crones, and very sympathetic and mysteriously handsome guys (whom are evidently gay), remonstrate, with what is clearly meant to be a kind of - well a gentle get in line you little git, and don't forget it! Or else you'll have to suffer our stilted overblown acting and end up like us!

 

Not sure about you, but I'm a sucker for a crying jag. I'm there pretending like the other guy not to cry myself - but it has become out of hand.

Ok sure, easy to criticise these guys, well here you go. Here's my pitch.

 

There is a gold shop with a lot of staff. The clerk tells the cashier he's uncertain about his sexuality. The cashier with a crush tells him she will always love him no matter what. The owner of the shop comes in with Nong Natt and bickers with them for making the gold shop nothing but a low class brothel he contends. Then mercurial as always he astounds everyone by announcing the marriage with Nong Natt. A young (very cute) girl enters the shop. Nong Natt disses her. The young girl cries like a baby. The owner of the shop looks very stern - the very much exemplar of the complete bastard. He says very carefully...........

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Sir ,

 

whenever searching for familiar TV while staying in a Thai hotel room the opening pieces usually are a couple of Thai programs where some well dressed younger people try to talk to another Thai person and everybody is laughing all the time . In comparison you seem to relate to an intellectually fairly demanding opera .

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Sir ,

 

whenever searching for familiar TV while staying in a Thai hotel room the opening pieces usually are a couple of Thai programs where some well dressed younger people try to talk to another Thai person and everybody is laughing all the time . In comparison you seem to relate to an intellectually fairly demanding opera .

 

As always Sir I remain,

 

Now that I think about it, it has always been so, but they've made it more so. Watching beautiful young children cry on the telly is a Thai past time. I struggle to understand it myself. I mean I'd never finish a hard day's work, then settle down in front of the TV in anticipation of the next series of crying jags. I mean, wtf?

 

Even if we propose that it is all just propaganda, I can't see how it works (but then again I could never see the invisible hand). Perhaps there is a gleeful elephant jumping around the room and we must all cry in to our tea and accept that this false reality is true, because here it is, persistent and unrelenting like a young child crying. Because ultimately you can't let a child cry forever, that is if you are a decent human being. So inject some morality in the form of some uncaring old witch, or some extremely handsome young principal guy in charge of an all girls school. Sounds preposterous, but that appears to be good Saturday night telly. When he has to talk a young girl down from a high jump, well this was clearly high drama if you forgive the pun.

 

Intellectual or otherwise, you can't tell the difference between the two. Is there such a thing as Thai Schadenfreude? It's like an inverted and perverse ugly duckling fairy tale. It's like they're pushing the anti-intellectual agenda so hard they've become intellectual.

 

As always Sir, I follow Thai TV with something of a duty, I soldier on. But I am and will always be incredibly susceptible to it. Thai TV entertains, and I would mourn it if I switched it off. Just keep showing more of the likes of Nong Natt is all I'm saying. Kind of like sex it up more.

 

And perhaps tone down the hardcore snap happy crime scene footage, whilst simultaneously covering more of the culture and people. More international coverage, more sports, more DJ Soda! More Molam, more sanook turned up to 11, because I seriously think if I was the Chairman of Thai TV we would be headed that way. Because right now the News donkey is boss-eyed and he's peering down news pipeline so fixedly he's stumbled in a ditch. Sir News, RISE, I command you.

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When my daughter was first trying out for TV work about all they were interested in was if she could cry on demand.

 

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. It's not like I'm a blithe curmudgeon - I think Thai acting is brilliant, and a high art. And okay I'm too much of a soft touch - I feel very uneasy watching children cry. I'll cry with them, but it's the unrelenting tenacity of it that I find so burdening. Give me a break, lighten it up for christ sake.

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Did anyone watch it last night or was it the night before? The bullied child was brought home after a much needed therapeutic break where through extensive coaxing and let's face it bribery, she finally managed a small wan smile. I could imagine that tiny smile make Thais crowded around the telly start high fiving and punching the air and cheering mightily - at least I was.... But then she is unceremoniously confronted with her tormentor. She literally pisses her pants she is so frightened, leaving a puddle on the floor, to everyone's dismay.

 

Now this isn't what you'd expect to see on Neighbours or Home and Away. You could just imagine the outcry. Deriving tension about how characters will react to a shit scared bullied child pissing on the floor, by whether they are more shocked by the pool on the floor, or the lack of manners, or ha! concern for the child.

 

I'm a pragmatist at heart, and if Thais want to watch this kind of stuff (which I presume they do), then that's fine - it's certainly diverting, for a moment I forgot my own troubles while I was so concerned for that child's welfare.

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