Bangkok Film Festival Pulls Sakamoto's Children of the Dark

The decision by the Bangkok Film Festival’s programmers to pull Junji Sakamoto’s Children of the Dark just days before the eight-day festival was scheduled to begin on 23^rd September 2008 marked the second year in succession that they had pulled a film for political reasons.   In 2007, Marjane Satrqapi’s Persepolis, which is about an Iranian girl growing up during the country’s revolution, was withdrawn following a complaint by the Iranian embassy in Bangkok.

The film, which was originally refused a permit to film in Thailand in 2007, was announced as playing at the festival earlier in September, but when the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the event’s main sponsors, and the Federation of National Film Assn learned of its content they decided to pull it, claiming it was ‘not appropriate for Thai society.’

 Defending the organiser’s decision, Federation chairman Jaruek Kaljaruek said, ‘Even though the bad guys in the movie are foreigners, the movie contains inappropriate content about child prostitution that does not fit with Thai society,’

 Talking to The Hollywood Reporter,  Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, the Festival’s Artistic Director, said,  ‘It was hard to make the decision.   I think the film was well-made and it's complicated. It's a very sensitive issue, and I think we as a society need to have more time to have a discussion about it. We need to educate people more about it first

 The film, which was based on a novel by Japanese-Korean author Yan Sogil, chronicles the attempts of an activist and a Japanese journalist to rescue Thai children forced into prostitution to service tourists.

 Following the decision, Sakamoto and producer Yukiko Shiii held a news conference in Bangkok on 24^th September in which they pleaded for the film to be widely seen.  Sakamoto said, ‘This film must be shown (to) all of the world, especially in Thailand for the children's future.   To stop this film is the same as shutting children's futures, also shutting the future in the country.’   Sakamoto went on to state that, ‘The film is not just about Thailand but about (people) going to developing countries for children.’

Defending the film against accusations of inappropriate images, Sakamoto argued that the film was nothing compared to images that can be seen on the internet. [ADD]

2008

Thailand: 2008