This article argues that the negative portrayal of medical professionals in contemporary Thai horror is to a certain extent reminiscent of the tensions between the official and popular attitudes to Western bio-medicine and Traditional Thai Medicine (TTM) in Thai society. The article argues that medical doctors, together with other members of the professional community, such as for instance architects, or journalists, represent a relatively high level in the Thai social hierarchy which can be openly criticized without much fear that the films will be cut by censors. Last but not least, the article will look in more detail on Paween Purijitpanya’s debut feature The Body #19 (2006). Set within the less-than-glamorous world of medical professionals, the film toys with the concept of the mental disease (schizophrenia), which in traditional Thai folk medicine has consequently been attributed to spiritual possession. This dual spiritual/medical nature of the mental disease in Thai popular perception, has allowed the filmmakers to create a film that can be seen as simultaneously repeating and breaking the established Thai horror formulas. At the same time, while directing our attention to the notion of disease, the film offers an interesting, though subtle representation of the disintegration of the traditional hierarchical Thai society and its values.
Tag: magic
Khmer magic in Thai cinema
Khmer magic holds a prominent place in Thai imaginary and is often portrayed in films. This article will discuss the most common portrayals of Khmer black magic in Thai popular cinema – from horror films to action and adventure genres. The main films discussed here will be the Art of the Devil trilogy (Khon len khong, 2004, Long khong, 2005, and Long khong 2, 2008), with references also made to such productions like Necromancer (Chom khamang wet, 2005) and Khun Pan (2016) and Khun Pan 2 (2018). The article argues that while the cinematic portrayals of Khmer magic provide opportunities to engage in a graphic spectacle of violence, their depictions are also consequently gendered, with female practitioners being labelled as ‘evil’ and male practitioners using magic to assert their masculinity.
Twenty-first century Asian Gothic
The chapter offers a selective survey of twenty-first-century Asian Gothic. The main focus of the discussion is the most prominent contemporary trend involving reconfigurations of Asian folklore and the ghost story. More specifically, this chapter investigates literary and film narratives dealing with individual and collective trauma that revolve around the figure of the vengeful ghost, texts which reclaim animism as inherent part of Asian modernity, and Asian Gothic’s interrogation of gender dynamics and empowered women. The first section of the essay discusses the emergence of the female vengeful ghost as the dominant figure of fear in Asian horror films. The second section examines the portrayal of ghosts in literature of the region and the way their haunting engages with historical trauma and socio-cultural anxieties of the time. The final part investigates narratives that highlight the connection of women to shamanism and magic and proposes to read female spirituality in terms of empowerment.