chuckwoww Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 Well maybe fake is the wrong word. The participants and the setting were real enough. Maybe it would have played out the same way without the camera. I think there are two ways of looking at this. On the one hand you have the producer saying the incident was not staged and JJ was a willing participant. On the other hand it was JJ who told the producer to get over with a camera. JJ had already been interviewed/softened up the day before. From then on it was made to look as if JJ was scamming the marine. Showing tourists getting scammed is what the show is about. But if he was extorting money why would he want it filmed? Why did the marine agree to pay the money? Another thing that struck me was the arrival of the Shore Patrol guy. He wasn't at all surprised to see the cameras there. You'd think he'd at least ask who they were but he goes straight into his rant as if he knew darn well why they were there. I'm not saying these guys sat around in a hotel rehearsing but this was not a spontaneous situation and the TV crew didn't just happen to be in the area. I know 'fake' suggests the whole thing was scripted but I can't think of a better word. Distorted? Doctored? Enhanced? By the way if you've got some time on your hands go to Youtube and type in JJ Marine. There's a lot of uncut stuff there. This is 'reality' TV so don't ask me how 'real' it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh_Hoy Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 Only thing missing was a commercial break. HH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallenda Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 If you read the director's comments, it sounds like he loves Thailand and had a bit of a different intention in making the series. He mentioned that he hands over the raw footage to be edited by the production company. It seems as if it's in the narration and editing that we get the impression it's a scam. I might look at the video again to see exactly where they give the impression it's a scam. I'm pretty sure it's mainly from the narration. About the sergeant showing up and not being fazed by the cameras, you can see the other soldiers in the background getting on their mobile phones -- they must have rang him up and let him know waht the sitaution was, including that there was a camera crew there. I'm with you on 'distorted' and 'enhanced'. If I was going to bet money, I'd put it on JJ being a scammer, and this one being another scam. It's POSSIBLE this one wasn't, but I doubt it. But I don't know for sure. The filmmaker blew a great chance to get in close to the damage and have the sergeant point out and tell the camera how he knows it's old damage. They did sth like that, but it was too brief and you didn't get a close enough look at the supposed staining that the sergeant mentioned. I say that because, that was the key evidence: if there was staining, it means it must be old damage. If there's not, it's new. That would be the 1 question I would put to the director. As for why the soldier agreed to pay, wasn't he alone when he did that? Intimidated, I think. Well maybe fake is the wrong word. The participants and the setting were real enough. Maybe it would have played out the same way without the camera. I think there are two ways of looking at this. On the one hand you have the producer saying the incident was not staged and JJ was a willing participant. On the other hand it was JJ who told the producer to get over with a camera. JJ had already been interviewed/softened up the day before. From then on it was made to look as if JJ was scamming the marine. Showing tourists getting scammed is what the show is about. But if he was extorting money why would he want it filmed? Why did the marine agree to pay the money? Another thing that struck me was the arrival of the Shore Patrol guy. He wasn't at all surprised to see the cameras there. You'd think he'd at least ask who they were but he goes straight into his rant as if he knew darn well why they were there. I'm not saying these guys sat around in a hotel rehearsing but this was not a spontaneous situation and the TV crew didn't just happen to be in the area. I know 'fake' suggests the whole thing was scripted but I can't think of a better word. Distorted? Doctored? Enhanced? By the way if you've got some time on your hands go to Youtube and type in JJ Marine. There's a lot of uncut stuff there. This is 'reality' TV so don't ask me how 'real' it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lusty Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 Agreed...if this had been a true situation. Has all the earmarks of a bad reality show. IMO the Marines would've come back and JJ and crew would've been pools of blood in the sand, the jet-ski's unidentifiable, the the hut spread out all over the beach. 5555555555 Well, not really, but you get the idea. No punk and his punk buddies would ever get away with that kind of crap with the Marines of ANY country. HH This is the point I was trying to get across with my Mrs as she watched this clip on the Thai TV. I said I thought it was a set up because a Marine is a well trained killer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallenda Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 Agreed...if this had been a true situation. Has all the earmarks of a bad reality show. IMO the Marines would've come back and JJ and crew would've been pools of blood in the sand' date=' the jet-ski's unidentifiable, the the hut spread out all over the beach. 5555555555 Well, not really, but you get the idea. No punk and his punk buddies would ever get away with that kind of crap with the Marines of ANY country. HH[/quote'] This is the point I was trying to get across with my Mrs as she watched this clip on the Thai TV. I said I thought it was a set up because a Marine is a well trained killer! Hm. In my country, they don't train marines to go out and kill civilians in everyday disputes. Maybe it's different in your country. Hopefully marines from your country are smart enough not to unleash themselves at full force when they know they're being filmed. Come to think of it, maybe this is why JJ called the film crew to come over for this particular transaction. Had he only had that insight into himself, he might be free now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustian Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 I think the most important point is that JJ is an arrogant prick, who has been pulling this scam for years and his father is a ranking police officer, so he was protected. I imagine his arrogance and feeling of invincibility meant he didn't care what the "stupid farang" got up to, he couldn't care less. He got busted and then posted 750,000 Baht bail according to the news. I'm sure he'll be back pulling scams on farang elsewhere soon enough. You just can't keep a good man down....plus all of the local police will be out of pocket and will want there revenue stream restored.............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 This is how one Chinese guy handled the situation....must be the Asian Way http://phuketwan.com/tourism/china-visitor-bucks-jetski-demand-50000-baht-11518/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadfly Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 Yesterday Thai authorities began steps to try and block a series currently running on a minor British television channel and they said they wanted to question the producer over the ‘set up’. They have also countermanded all ‘film release’ forms which were required for the filming and transmission. How are Thai authorities going to block a TV channel in the UK? Why would they even try something as ridiculous as trying to "block" news being reported in the UK? It's this angle of the story that intrigues me the most. That immediate impulse here to squelch the story because they don't like it instead of addressing matters on their merits. We're all speculating here about a possible set up. This speaks volumes about the mind set here - publicly announcing that you intend to block a news report in a country where you can't block the news (unlike, say, uh...) If I did not know better, I'd say this was a "set-up", since it just fuels the story and invites mockery. But I really don't think many of the local authorities get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 what a debarcle! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooper Posted September 14, 2009 Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 Posted already one year ago in Youtube: Demand of 55000 baht negotiated down to 10000, actual cost of repair should be 2000-3000 baht. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.