Thailand Kills ‘Shakespeare Must Die’

The Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/04/04/thailand-kills-shakespeare-must-die/

“Shakespeare Must Die,” a new Thai film that bills itself as a Shakespearean horror movie, tells the story of a dictator who suppresses a local staging of “Macbeth.”

But in a case of life imitating art, the Thai government — which partially funded the movie — has banned it, saying its content “causes divisiveness among the people of the nation.”

Directed by Ing K, or Samanrat Kanjanavanit, and produced by “Pink Man” artist Manit Sriwanichpoom, “Shakespeare Must Die” is based on the Scottish Play, with “some cinematic and Thai cultural adaptations,” according to a director’s statement.

The movie’s funding, by the country’s Ministry of Culture, was granted by Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government in 2010, but it was submitted to the censorship board under his successor, Yingluck Shinawatra, last month. It was due to be released later this year.

Thailand has barred controversial movies in the past, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Syndromes and a Century” in 2007 and more recently, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit’s “Insects in the Backyard,” a sexually explicit drama about a transgender father whose teenage children turn to prostitution. Ing K herself is no stranger to such obstacles: Her 1998 film “My Teacher Eats Biscuits” was raided by police at a screening, and it took her 10 years to release “Citizen Juling,” her documentary about unrest in Thailand’s Muslim south.

With its political overtones, “Shakespeare Must Die” recalls recent events in Thailand’s tumultuous history. In one scene, the dictator addresses his subjects in front of a red-and-yellow flag — echoing the country’s rival red- and yellow-shirt contingents — while another scene references imagery from the 1976 Thammasat University massacre, specifically a widely seen photo of a man beating the hanging corpse of a student demonstrator.

“Shakespeare Must Die” has experienced its share of setbacks prior to the censorship ruling. Not only did the 2010 red-shirt riots hold up production, but postproduction was delayed during last year’s floods.

Shakespeare “is barely heard of in Thailand,” its website says, “a country that is actually living through Shakespearean times.”