Cultures crossing: past and future of

cinema in socialist South East Asia1

Annette Hamilton

Abstract: The emergence of ‘global culture’ has been taken to indi-

cate the end of distinctive local cultural forms, especially with regard
to cinema. The focus on Western screen cultures, however, does not
do justice to the complexity of Asian cultural production; nor does
it consider the different role that local filmmaking may take in non-
Western contexts. This paper considers the very small national film
industries in three of the ‘socialist’ nations of South East Asia. Film
cultures were shaped by colonial experiences, then dramatically
interrupted by the Second World War and subsequently by the
struggles over nationalism and independence that ultimately came
under the sway of ‘socialism’ and the domination of the Soviet
system. Recently, with some liberalization of government policies,
independent filmmakers have again emerged at the same time as
Western film on DVD and VCD has suddenly become available both
legally and illegally. The past and current situation regarding film
in these nations is discussed.

Keywords: film production; indigenous cinema; Myanmar/Burma;

Lao PDR; Cambodia

Many strands of research in the human sciences have recently been

concerned with borders, boundaries and hybridity.2 While some
dismiss this interest as ‘trendy’ or ‘fashionable’, it focuses on the
recognition of the significance of separations and connections; on the
1
This is a considerably revised version of a paper presented at the Conference, ‘Film
on the Borders’, at Thammasat University in Bangkok, August 2005. Thanks are due
to the anonymous reviewers for stimulating comments, and in particular to Rachel
Harrison for her interest and nuanced perspectives.
2
The relationship between social and symbolic boundaries, cultural production, and
difference and hybridity has been an emerging direction in social science research.
See Lamond, M., and Molnar, V. (2002), ‘The study of boundaries in the social
sciences’, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol 28, pp 167–195. A counter-movement is
discussed in Pietese, J. N. (2001), ‘The anti-hybridity backlash and the riddles of
recognition’, Theory, Culture and Society, Vol 18, Nos 2–3, pp 219–245.

South East Asia Research, 14, 2, pp. 261–287

262 South East Asia Research

fact that identity and difference are inseparable and simultaneous; and
that repetition and transformation are central to cultural dynamics. In
contemporary conditions of cultural production, it is no longer possible to
identify clearly the ‘differences’ that once served as proxy indicators
of nations, regions, cultures and economic systems. Everything seems
to be influenced by everything else: there is no more ‘pure’ culture,
unless it is invented for the purposes of consumption, for example,
traditions of classical theatre or dance revived and preserved for the
benefit of national elites, who support it for the elevated status it
conveys. Yet local expressions of history, memory and imagination thrive
and use new technologies to ensure their repetitions, and national
identities merge into transnational networks sustained by images of
origin, continuity and essentialism, even while being absorbed into larger
frameworks in which other identities emerge.
The global perspective has a compelling truth when viewed at the
outer levels. Many have noted the emergence of public spaces that are
interchangeable: the international airport, the shopping mall, the
cinema chain. Apart from signage and some sound elements, being in
one of these spaces is essentially the same wherever it happens to be,
and there are good reasons for this, since the planners, designers and
builders are trained in a common framework and with common
economic imperatives.3 These uniform spaces contrast with the public
venues of pre-modern times, which were once the contexts in
which most people experienced sociality and important cultural
events: the morning market, the open-air cinema in the temple grounds,
the festival or calendrical rituals held in open spaces or sacred
sites.4
The universalization of cultural production – the emergence of a global
culture – has been seen as signalling the end of distinctive local
cultural forms, and nowhere has this been more the case than with the
development and prevalence of Hollywood cinema. Even where
audiences are not watching Hollywood films dubbed in a local
language, they are likely to be watching local or regional productions
saturated with elements of the Hollywood/US cinematic language. The
rise of big-budget blockbusters with astonishing special effects seems
3
See, for example, Fuller, G., and Harley, R. (2004), Aviopolis: A Book About Air-
ports, Black Dog Publishing, London.
4
And many continue to do so. The spread of shopping malls and cinema chains has
however been extremely rapid, especially in Asia, and almost everybody will be
exposed to them, even if not on an everyday basis.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 263

to have created a cinema language that others strive to emulate, even

where there is little or no budget.5
Nevertheless, the stress by Western film theorists on the impact of
Hollywood does not do justice to the complexities of screen cultures in
Asia.6 It is obvious that Chinese film, especially from Hong Kong, has
for decades shaped popular taste all over the region. Other national
film traditions have also had some impact. In Thailand in the 1980s at
the many open-air picture shows held in small towns at festival times,
it was common to see Indian films, Japanese films and Italian films
being screened down small alleyways or in temple courtyards, although
by the end of the 80s these seemed to have been replaced entirely by
American and Hong Kong films.7 More recently, other national
cinemas, such as those from Korea, have become popular. But it should
not be forgotten that throughout the period of modernity, Thai film
continued to be made and shown, with greater or lesser success, and
although Thai film itself seemed to be seriously under threat in the
1990s, quite suddenly another ‘flowering’ of Thai cinema has occurred
with a wide variety of new directions and stylistics marking out new
sensibilities along with technical innovations.8

5
Many Asian low-budget films strive to emulate fancy special effects in what
sophisticated viewers tend to see as ‘cheesy’ gestures in the direction of a Holly-
wood visual aesthetic. However, indigenous interpretations of magical and supernatural
matters lend themselves readily to filmic expression, especially moments involving
the gaze between human and supernatural powers, or the breaching of human bodily
integrity by spiritual forces.
6
The lack of recognition of the existence of South East Asian cinema traditions and
contemporary production is quite extraordinary. For example, the recent Oxford History
of World Cinema (edited by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, 1996, Oxford University Press,
Oxford and New York) is intended to be a compendium on the topic, but refers to
only one national cinema from South East Asia, that of Indonesia. This is remark-
able not only for the obliteration of the cinematic traditions of several nations and
millions of people, and particularly so considering that the film industry of the
Philippines was the third most productive in the world, after India and the USA.
(See David Hanan [2001], ‘Introduction’, Film in South East Asia: Views from the
Region, SEAPAVAA in association with the Vietnam Film Institute and the National
Screen and Sound Archive of Australia, Hanoi, p 15.)
7
I know of no comprehensive survey of foreign film imports into Thailand during
early periods. Chalida Uabumrungjit (2001) provides some useful discussion – see
note 8.
8
Studies on Thai cinema in English are relatively few. For an overview, see Boonrak
Boonyaketmala (1992), ‘The rise and fall of the film industry in Thailand, 1897–
1992’, East–West Film Journal, Vol 6, No 2; and Dome Sukwong and Sawadi
Suwannapak (2001), A Century of Thai Cinema, Thames and Hudson, London. An
excellent summary of early Thai film history is provided in Scott Barmé (1999),
‘Early Thai cinema and filmmaking: 1897–1922’, Film History, Vol 11, No 3. See
264 South East Asia Research

I want to raise here the question of the very small national film
industries that have existed in three of the ‘socialist’ nations of South
East Asia. Film cultures were shaped by colonial experiences, and grew
into lively indigenous production with a surprisingly large number of
films being produced, many of which are now unrecoverable.
Anticolonial wars of independence, complex internal struggles between
traditionalists and neonationalists supported by the international
communist movement, and often disastrous experiences of dislocation,
disrupted the cultural expressions of these nations. Changed conditions
due to the fall of the Soviet Union and other international events in the
1990s have resulted in moves towards the recuperation of indigenous
perspectives and the revival of a film industry, generally on a shoe-
string budget and still subjected to government interference of greater
or lesser intensity. The sudden technological changes involving low-
cost reproduction with VCDs, DVDs and access to the Internet are
further affecting both production and reception. Indigenous film
production is showing signs of revival even as international product is
becoming, for the first time, widely and readily available.
Film has in many cases appropriated the role that once belonged to
the storyteller, the bard and the chronicler. Where ‘histories’ and
narratives once came from generation to generation through story,
poetry, dance, drama and song, the existence of a powerful technology
of representation that allows themes to be ‘brought to life’ and experi-
enced again and again, by sight and sound, almost as if the subject was
‘there’, has created a new way in which people can learn the stories of
their cultural past. Anthropologists use the term ‘mythologies’ to refer
to such stories. This does not imply that they are false or wrong, as
against histories that are true and accurate. It suggests that the most
important ideas humans can have about their own position as people
and subjects in their world of experience come to them through
collective narratives. Today these are mediated by new technologies,
which assist in the reformulation and re-imagining of cultural pasts. In

also Annette Hamilton (1993), ‘Cinema and nation: dilemmas of representation in

Thailand’, East–West Film Journal, Vol 7, No 1, pp 81–105, republished in Wimal
Dissayanake, ed (1994), Colonialism and Nationalism in Asian Cinema, Indiana
University Press, Bloomington, IN, pp 141–161. Two recent papers are particularly
valuable for their historical detail; see Chalida Uabumrungjit, ‘Cinema in Thailand:
1897 to 1970’, and Anchalee Chaiworaporn, ‘Thai cinema since 1970’, both in Hanan,
D., ed (2001), Film in South East Asia: Views from the Region, SEAPAVAA, the
Vietnam Film Institute and the National Screen and Sound Archive of Australia,
Hanoi.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 265

many parts of the world, narrative traditions are sustained and passed
on by practices of film or video making, managed entirely at a local
level in terms of production and distribution.9
South East Asia can in many respects be seen as having a very closely
related set of ‘deep structures’ in cultural terms, even while major
historical developments and linguistic diversity seem to have marked
kingdoms and then nations as distinct from each other for centuries. A
common tradition in Theravada Buddhism (with many variations)
provides an ontological continuity between Myanmar (Burma), Thai-
land, Lao PDR and Cambodia. Similar traditional economies based on
rice-growing in family and community groupings, similar musical and
performance traditions, divisions of elites and commoners, numerous
similar everyday customs, and many other aspects strike anyone mov-
ing between these nations, in spite of their differences.
Not only is the whole region culturally connected, certain zones com-
pose even more distinctive pre-modern groupings that do not correspond
to contemporary state boundaries. These were largely the outcome of
processes of colonialism and nationalism, especially in the eighteenth,
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today thousands or even millions
of people who are culturally and linguistically close are separated by
national boundaries that make some of them ‘Thai’ and others ‘Lao’,
‘Khmer’ or ‘Malay’, for example. Moreover, being included in one
nation state rather than another has exposed people to wholly different
kinds of experiences, which necessarily separate them in their con-
sciousness and culture from those who in other respects share a common
heritage. Today, under the conditions of globalization and modernity,
will we see a situation in which these historical, national and
linguistic differences become less important, in which connections may

9
In Africa, cheap technologies of production and reproduction have resulted in an
enormous video feature-film industry. In Nigeria, for instance, over 600 feature-
length video films were produced in 2004, wholly intended for and funded by the
local mass market. With budgets as small as $4,000, and usually shot in under two
weeks, a successful video film can sell over 100,000 copies. Poor Nigerians can
view them cheaply in video theatres. See Onokome Okome and J. Haynes (1977),
Cinema and Social Change in West Africa, Nigerian Film Corporation, Jos. The
situation in Ghana is similar, where untrained filmmakers took ordinary VHS video
cameras and made films ‘from the street’. For an excellent essay on popular film in
Ghana, see Birgit Meyer, ‘Ghanaian popular cinema and the magic in and of film’,
Website: www.africanfilmny.org/network/news/Fmeyer.html. Meyer’s account is
particularly important for its emphasis on the visualization of occult forces and the
way film is created within the field of taste of the popular audience.
266 South East Asia Research

be more significant than separations? Alternatively, will these changes

mean that that the ‘differences’ between nationalities will be intensi-
fied? There are complex signs pointing in both directions.

Cinema and the socialist states

All the contemporary nations of South East Asia have had a substantial
history of engagement with cinema. This includes exposure to Western
cinematic traditions during the era of colonialism and the development of
indigenous filmmaking traditions, in many cases dating back to before
the Second World War. Research on the histories and contemporary
aspects of cinema in some of these nations is almost completely lack-
ing. While Indonesian and Philippines cinema has had considerable
scholarly attention, and Vietnamese cinema has been discussed in some
detail primarily as a result of issues arising from the Vietnam war, and
while Thai cinema is increasingly identified as a scholarly area, the
history and situation of film in the three ‘socialist’ states is almost
unknown.10 There have been some signs of increasing attention to this
topic and the present paper is intended as a schematic outline of the
situation in Myanmar/Burma, the Lao PDR and Cambodia.11 It is
intended as no more than the first stage of a larger project that aims to
provide a more nuanced understanding of how film has impacted in
regions where its indigenous development was dramatically curtailed
by political events from the 70s on, until recent times when various

10
I am well aware that a grouping based on the experience of ‘socialism’ should
include Vietnam; however, in part because of the cultural variation and complexity
of Vietnamese cultural production, and in particular due to the overwhelming effects
of the colonial and then American wars (such that hardly a single film exists which
does not deal with war or post-war themes), I have chosen not to include Vietnamese
cinema in the present discussion. See John Charlot (1989), ‘Vietnamese cinema: the
power of the past’, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol 102, No 406, ‘Vietnam’,
pp 442–452; and Pham Ngoc Truong (2001), ‘A brief history of Vietnamese films’,
in Hanan, supra note 8.
11
The name ‘Burma’ was replaced by ‘Myanmar’ in 1989, at the same time as ‘Ran-
goon’ was renamed ‘Yangon’, for complex reasons. I have used the term ‘Myanmar/
Burma’ throughout this paper, as use of one or the other is common depending on
what source is being referred to; and have retained ‘Rangoon’ as the name for the
capital city, since ‘Yangon’ is unrecognizable to most outside the country. Likewise,
use of the terms Cambodia and Kampuchea is a complex matter. I have retained
‘Cambodia’ here rather than referring to the country as Kampuchea, but refer to the
people and culture as ‘Khmer’. ‘Lao’ is used to refer to the people and culture of the
Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), but also refers to ethnic Lao in neigh-
bouring countries, especially Thailand.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 267

levels of ‘adjustment’ and some resurgence of cinema culture have

occurred, both in terms of indigenous production and of opening to an
outside world that includes global screen cultures.
Each of the countries mentioned above was colonized – Burma by
Britain, Laos and Cambodia by France. During the Second World War,
Japan also had a semi-occupational or colonial role, but in the after-
math of Japan’s defeat, each moved rapidly towards a position of socialist
nationalism. Burma declared itself dedicated to pursuing ‘the Burmese
Road to Socialism’ and cut itself off from the rest of the world almost
completely, governed by an increasingly stringent military dictator-
ship; the Lao PDR and Cambodia in the post-war era overthrew the
French and became socialist satellites with heavy presence and
influences from Russia, China and Eastern Europe. In Cambodia,
Vietnam played a very significant role, finally taking over government
following the internal collapse of the post-Pol Pot years. Internally,
experiences of war, anticolonial struggle, socialism, the cult of person-
ality, and in the case of Cambodia a period of traumatic catastrophe,
have marked the historical trajectories of these nations in as yet
unfathomable ways. It is also noteworthy that each of them shares long
common borders with Thailand, and today very complex relations
exist over these borders, concerned with the movement of goods (legal
and illegal) as well as ideas, images and cultural forms, not to mention
people including gangsters, aid workers, refugees, labourers, illegal
immigrants, women and children destined for prostitution, and
Western tourists.
There are also deep relations among these nations in the historical
record, carried forward into the present through narratives, perform-
ances, and, recently, film. Burma and Siam were ancient enemies – a
conflict that has resurfaced recently in Thailand’s enthusiastic embrace
of a national history that again poses ‘Burma’ as an enemy confronting
Siam over centuries, out of which Thailand emerged as it is today. Thai
history as taught in schools and universities is divided into dynastic
regimes punctuated by traumatic moments, the most notable of these
being the final victory of Burma over the Kingdom of Ayutthaya in
1767 and the sacking of the once magnificent city. Recent ‘blockbuster’
Thai films have refocused attention on this period, most notably Bang
Rajan (director Thanit Jitnukul, 2000) and Suriyothai (director Prince
Chatrichalerm Yukhol, aka Than Mui, 2001). Bang Rajan tells an
intensely nationalistic story of simple but heroic Thai villagers fight-
ing against evil Burmese invaders in 1767; Suriyothai, the most expensive
268 South East Asia Research

Thai film ever made, follows the life of its eponymous heroine until
she dies courageously in battle defending her husband from Burmese
invaders in 1569.12
What is now part of north-eastern Thailand was once included in the
Khmer kingdoms, and struggles for supremacy also took place between
Khmer and Thai. Many people who live in the Thai–Khmer border
zones are of Khmer descent and continue to speak Khmer at home.
Khmer culture has a particular profile in Thailand, where the intensity
of Khmer magical power (saksit Khmen in Thai) is highly feared and
respected. The national boundaries of the Lao PDR do not reflect the
vast territories once known as ‘Lao’ land in northern Thailand, which
in the colonial period became part of Siam. Whereas Burma today
retains its aura of traditional hostility, as an ‘enemy’ that once defeated
Thailand, the Lao PDR and Lao people are viewed as a kind of ‘little
brother’ to Thai and, in the current post-socialist era and especially
with the bridge-building policies over the past decade, generally cordial
but complex relations continue to exist.13

The effects of socialist cultural theory

In considering the history of cinema in these nations, it is inevitable
that we consider the effects of socialist cultural theory. The imposition
12
Bang Rajan is based on a popular and familiar story, which appears in many Thai
versions. See Sunait Chutintaranond (2000), ‘Historical writings, historical novels
and period movies and dramas’, Journal of the Siam Society, Vol 88, Nos 1 and 2, pp
53–58, for an excellent discussion of the relationship between Thai historical writ-
ings, novels and films. Suriyothai was directed by the prestigious Prince Chatrichalerm
Yukhol, and its cast included popular stars, with detailed attention to costume
design, murals and the material culture of the Ayutthaya court. See Glen Lewis (2003),
‘The Thai movie revival and Thai national identity’, Continuum, Journal of Media
and Cultural Studies, Vol 17, No 1, pp 69–78. Publicity in Thailand for both of these
films was extraordinary, and for a short period both were immensely popular, but
were then quickly overshadowed by an upsurge of films with an urban, ‘edgy’ feel.
See Annette Hamilton (2006), ‘Transforming cultural imperialism from within: new
Thai cinema at the margins’, paper presented at the Media and Identity in Asia Con-
ference, 15–16 February, Miri, Sarawak.
13
The bridge across the Mekhong at Nong Khai, built by Australian aid funds, was the
first major infrastructure project to connect Thailand and Laos. The border between
them lies in the river; up- and downstream from Nong Khai, many individuals linked
by kinship on both sides cross the river by boat as they have done for centuries.
Nevertheless, border patrols continue to be active in surveillance and deterrence of
illegal movement. Lao people often resent the patronizing superiority expressed by
Thailand towards the Lao PDR; see Mayoury and Pheuiphanh Ngaosyvathn (1994),
Kith and Kin Politics: The Relationship between Laos and Thailand, Journal of
Contemporary Asia Publishers, Manila, Philippines and Wollongong.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 269

of a concept of cultural production under the influence of Marxism–

Leninism was inevitable, given the domination by Soviet politics, the
reorganization of the nations’ economy and society through party domi-
nation, and the requirement for control over populations already
traumatized by the colonial and international wars and their aftermath.
Socialist cultural theory, based on the original concepts developed by
Lenin, depends on key frameworks that seemed to change little over
the years of communist rule. Very briefly, Leninist theory called for a
set of principles, which had to be followed by all media practitioners.
All cultural production was held to represent the class interests of those
who produced it. Writers, artists and journalists reflected in their
work ‘tendencies’; in capitalist societies these ‘tendencies’ were to
support bourgeois interests, whereas in socialist societies the interests
of the proletariat had to be supported. In practice, especially under
Stalin, this came to mean a commitment to the party and its agents,
and to the leader. Cultural content must reflect a class ideological
essence, reflecting Marxist–Leninist ideology – the ideology of the
working class and the labouring masses. Thus, a ‘line’ would be
produced, and the duty of the cultural practitioner was to reflect that
line. The principle of narodnost (in Russian) meant that communica-
tive forms had to be ‘accessible to the masses’. ‘Entertainment’ thus
had a particular significance; it had to be ideologically sound and
support the struggles of workers and peasants; and in order to retain its
ideological purity, it needed to avoid depictions of sex, political satire
or disagreement, and eliminate any signs of Western bourgeois
decadence, especially Western music or similar popular cultural
forms.14
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, many elements
of society and polity changed in the distant satellite nations, but the
fundamental control by the government and the party over media and
cultural expression still remains significant. This is not the place to
enter into an extended discussion on this point, but the effects, and
after-effects, of socialist theories of culture are an important element
in understanding the history and development of cinema and cultural
production more generally in these nations.

14
Soviet media theory is described by Brian McNair (1992), ‘Television in a post-
Soviet union’, Screen, Vol 33, No 3, pp 303–309. The extent to which this was
articulated in the socialist states of South East Asia, and how it was implemented,
remain matters for further research.
270 South East Asia Research

Myanmar/Burma
There is very little published in books or journals on cinema in Myanmar/
Burma. Burmese is not spoken anywhere outside Burma (other than by
the Burmese diaspora now scattered in many parts of the world) and
there has never been a significant market for films outside the
country. Some film theorists interested in the history of lesser known
film industries have mentioned Burmese film in passing, particularly
because of the early link to Indian film. Rangoon was considered one
of the major Indian film markets after Bombay and Calcutta until 1937,
with 58 permanent film theatres. Even in these early years, Burmese
film seemed to have certain characteristics that film critics did not
appreciate: ‘excessive length’, an ‘abundance of captions’, and ‘fairy
tale’ genres, as well as ‘a lavish indulgence in the supernatural and a
variety of demons’.15 However, aspects of the history and current
condition of Burmese film have recently been receiving attention in a
number of online sources including both government and ‘dissident’
Websites, providing an overview and some detail of this little known
cinema.
Film began in Burma in 1919. A documentary on traditional cottage
industries (lacquerware, parasol making, silk and textiles) was locally
produced for the British Empire Exhibition in London, but was not
screened in Burma. However, a film was made of the funeral proces-
sion of one of Myanmar’s delegates to the London conference and it
was screened alongside an American full-length feature film in
Rangoon in September 1920.16 The country’s first silent film, Myitta
Hnint Thuya (Love and Liquor) was screened in Rangoon in Novem-
ber 1920 at the Cinéma de Paris.17 As was the case with other Asian
national film industries, this early period seems to have been one of
high appeal and experiment. British films were shown for the British
colonists, while through the 1920s and 1930s a number of Burmese-
owned production houses opened in Rangoon, including A1, New Burma,
British Burma, the Imperial, Bandoola and Yan Gyi Aung, with local

15
Roy Armes (1987), Third World Filmmaking and the West, University of California
Press, Berkeley, CA, p 148.
16
See MODiNS.NET, ‘Background history of the Myanmar motion picture industry’,
www.modins.net/entertainment/filmstar/bg_history.htm. This is an official govern-
ment Website, which takes a different approach from that summarized here from
non-government sources, as would be expected.
17
Aung Zaw (2004), ‘Celluloid disillusions’, The Irrawaddy, Vol 12, No 3, March,
online at www.irrawaddy.org/database/2004/vol12.3/cover.html.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 271

directors such as Nyi Pu, Sunny, Toke Kyi and Tin Pe quickly achiev-
ing fame.18 Apparently, almost all archival materials in Rangoon are
unavailable or have deteriorated severely, although first-hand research
in Burma is required and careful research in British colonial archives
may prove revealing.19 Indian film was certainly popular among the
urban population and Burmese filmmakers were highly influenced by
the Indian film industry, which was developing during the same
period. The first talkie, Ngwe pe-lo ma-ya (You Can’t Pay for it With
Money) was directed in Bombay by Toke Kyi and shown in 1932. Up
to 1941, around 600 Burmese movies were produced, many with
Indian production assistance. The majority involved love stories,
legends, the occult and the supernatural, but some were concerned with
Burmese history or Buddhist themes.20 The rise of anti-British nation-
alism resulted in movies depicting historical events differently from
the view taken by the British colonial authorities. Sunny, also known
as Parrot U. Sunny, started his own production house, Sunny, which
highlighted social issues and police corruption, his movies being
censored by the British authorities. His most nationalist film, Do daung
lan (Our Peacock Flag) was banned altogether.
Another historical film, Aung Thapye (The Triumph of Thapyay) was
directed by Tin Maung of the A1 studio in 1937, telling the story of
Burma’s last monarch, defeated in battle by the British and exiled to
India, where he died. The British colonial government banned the film
from being screened in movie theatres. The student leader, U Nu, who
later became Prime Minister, co-directed Boycotta, a film about
student-led struggles for independence. Aung San, also then a student
leader and father of current pro-democracy leader Aung San Su Kyi,
acted in some scenes.
With the Japanese occupation of Burma on 9 March 1942, the film
industry ceased, the majority of the directors joining the Burma
Independence Army. After the war, the motion picture industry
celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1947 (two years late) and Aung
San, now a general, spoke at the celebrations, exhorting Burmese
directors and actors to serve their country through their arts. He was

18
Ibid.
19
Research in the Archives d’Outre Mer in Aix-en-Provence, the French national
archive for the colonial period, revealed a great deal about the early experience of
French films in Vietnam.
20
Discussed at www.Indianchild.com/Movies/Burmese_movies.htm.
272 South East Asia Research

assassinated later that year. His favourite movie is reported to have

been Gone with the Wind.21
After Burma gained independence in 1948, filmmaking found new
themes, and the need to ‘unify the nation’ became the catchphrase in
the face of ethnic rebellions and a communist insurgency. Famous movie
stars appeared in propaganda movies when Rangoon was under siege
by Karen rebels in 1949; but after the Chinese Kuomintang invasion of
north-east Burma in the 1950s, the need for unity became even more
imperative and was reflected in films.22 During the many complex con-
flicts of the 1950s, movies continued to play a role, but after the Burmese
Socialist Program took control in 1962, the motion-picture industry
was directed to turn its attention to promoting ‘the Burmese road to
socialism’. Cinema halls and production houses were nationalized, scripts
were scrutinized by censors before production was approved, and movies
were required to show the struggles of workers and peasants. After
General Ne Win’s coup in 1962, many people from the film industry
joined the anti-Rangoon forces. A story worthy of a movie in itself
relates to this period. Born in 1941, Louisa Benson was a Portuguese–
Jewish–Karen movie star, a well educated member of a wealthy family
who had studied in Boston and was a member of Rangoon’s upper crust.
She had twice been crowned Miss Burma in 1956 and 1958. She mar-
ried Brigadier General Lin Tin, commander of the Karen rebels’ 5th
Brigade, 16 years older than herself, uneducated and known as a
hellraiser. In 1965, Lin Tin was gunned down by Burmese agents out-
side a movie theatre in Thaton, in Mon State. His 24-year-old widow
then led his 400 brigade troops, camped nearby, back into the jungle
where they continued operations against the Rangoon government with
herself as Commander. In 1967 however, she met and married an Ameri-
can, Glen Craing, and now lives in California where she is active in
Karen and pro-democracy movements.23
The post-1962 Burmese socialist government supported a local film
industry, but now under strict government controls. There was no
interest in fostering ‘quality’, but nevertheless, film was very popular
and as recently as the 1970s there were 400 movie theatres in Myanmar,
the better ones in Rangoon (Yangon) being air-conditioned and

21
Aung Zaw, supra note 17.
22
Paleh myat-teh (Tear of Pearl) was produced in this period, denouncing imperialism
and stressing the importance of the Tatmadaw (Armed Forces).
23
See Website: www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/karenmuseum-a/personalities.htm#Benson%
20Naw%20Louise. Her story is also referred to in Aung Zaw, supra note 17.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 273

furnished with fashionable sofas, a rarity in South East Asia at the time.
By the 1980s, the Burmese economy was in free-fall and not even bulbs
for car headlights could be imported. Nevertheless, the government
still permitted the importation of enough film stock and film material
for popular movies to be made. Movie stars remained famous and fêted;
in 1987, I visited the monastery just over the Irrawaddy River in Man-
dalay where the movie queens withdraw for a three-month Buddhist
meditation period during the rainy season. Those who made and starred
in movies were all on the government payroll, and movie stars also
performed in advertisements, and were pictured in calendars, posters
and public affairs messages. Until recently, filmmakers had to use
equipment up to 50 years old, which resulted in substandard quality
with mono sound. Four hundred feet of film was needed for a long shot
of 4.5 minutes, and cost over kyat100,000 (US$120). Cinemas on the
outskirts of towns and cities such as Rangoon had largely closed down,
and one cinema group, Mingalar, held the rights to all popular films for
one month each, showing only in the decaying mid-town
cinemas.24
In 1989, following the fall of the old Soviet Union, the government
began to implement some opening of the economy, cinemas were sold to
private bidders, and new film production houses were permitted to be
established. In spite of this apparent ‘freedom’, all of those involved had
close ties with the government and military, thus seeing the creation of a
hybrid capitalist/militarist economic structure, versions of which are
common in Asia. Mingalar Ltd now owned most of the cinemas in
Rangoon and Mandalay, and continues to do so.25 However, poorer
people and those outside the capital were able to view a wide variety of
films on video. Video parlours sprang up, often in people’s private houses,
where customers paid a minimal price for a spot on a bench.26

24
Min Zin (2004), ‘Digital killed the celluloid star’, The Irrawaddy, 1 March, online.
25
Thamada, Taw Win, Naypyidaw and Mingalar in Rangoon; Win Lite and Myo Ma in
Mandalay.
26
Comparable local practices were common in small towns in Thailand in the 1980s,
showing a mixture of local, Hong Kong and Hollywood films. Vendors provided
snacks and drinks, passing along the alleyways where the video parlours stood. By
the 1990s, with the rise of VCDs and DVDs and the comparative affluence of all but
the poorest, this kind of local public viewing arrangement had largely disappeared.
See Annette Hamilton (1993), ‘Video crackdown, or, the sacrificial pirate’, Public
Culture, Vol 11, pp 515–532; also ‘The national picture: Thai media and cultural
identity’ (2002), in Faye Gisburg, Leila Abu-Lughod and Brian Larkin, eds, Media
Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA,
pp 152–170.
274 South East Asia Research

A number of film companies currently exist in Burma and, in 2003,

26 movies were released. Scripts must still be approved and movie
stars who were involved in the democracy movements have been banned.
A well known director, Win Pe, moved to the USA in the late 1990s
and now works for Radio Free Burma. His films are not legally avail-
able in Myanmar.
Pro-government filmmakers are financially assisted. Their films are
sometimes regarded by opponents as nothing but ‘propaganda’,
explicitly required to preserve national culture and character. Other
‘approved’ film companies are simply devoted to ‘entertainment’. Kyaw
Entertainment Company in Rangoon markets its most popular films on
VHS and now on DVD, also offering the convenience of ordering via
its Website. The most popular products are a series of comedies featur-
ing singers, dancers and a group of five well known comedians, and
popular romances featuring beauty pageants, music and weddings.27
Mingalar Ltd also has a Website on which movies can be ordered and
online trailers are offered.28
Contemporary Burmese film also includes a genre similar to the nang
chiwit, or ‘life drama, melodrama’ in Thai. A detailed study of one
such film was presented at the conference on ‘South East Asian Cinema at
the Borders’ (Bangkok, August 2005) from the perspective of Shan
state refugees who enjoy Burmese film.29 Films made specifically for
DVD are beginning to appear and are screened in cinemas as well as
being shown privately. A recent film being shot by Maung Myo Min
(Yintwin Phyit), Burma’s most famous film director, takes a James Bond

27
See www.kyaw-entertainment.com. The site offers VDO, VCD Karaoke, CD and
NVCD, including material on Buddhist Dharma (religious studies). Ordering is only
possible for people inside Myanmar, who must give a home address.
28
Trailers are available on the Mingalar site at http://www.movie.mcc.com.mm/
trailersALL.asp?pcount=11. There is definite irony in the notion that a Web
presence and online viewing and ordering are suitable for the Myanmar audience,
given the extreme poverty and limited electricity supply throughout the country,
even in the larger cities. However, this may underestimate the current extent of
economic difference and the rise of a ‘middle class’ sustained by the military
dictatorship.
29
At the conference, held at Thammasat University in Bangkok, 15–16 August 2005,
Jane Ferguson, a PhD student from Cornell, presented a paper entitled ‘Ton Indaya
Po meets Shan state army: Shan migrants, Burmese stars and political discord at the
Thai–Burma border’. It its discussion of the use of Burmese popular film by Shan
state refugees living within the Thai–Burma border region, it demonstrated a close
familiarity with the film text and its broader cultural references.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 275

theme and includes underwater fight scenes using advanced computer-

aided special effects.30
Educated people in Burma have little respect for Burmese films of
recent years, due to the strong authoritarian approach of the govern-
ment and the very strict censorship rules. Control over film import,
production and distribution is exerted by the Information Ministry of
the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Many foreign films
are banned, although a significant black market in videos and DVDs
has arisen in the past decade, resulting in a police crackdown in 2005.
Acceptable films from government-supported companies are known as
‘policy films’, while some are produced by the ‘intelligence’ services
and are known as htauk-hlan-ye ka (or ‘intelligence movies’).31 Myat
Mingalar Ltd was set up as a production house by the then Minister of
Railways, Win Sein, who made the film Thu-kyun ma-khan-bi (We Will
Not Be Slaves), which won seven ‘Academy Awards’ (ie awards of the
Myanmar Film Academy, a government-controlled body) in 1996.
Changes in government attitudes to social problems can also be traced
in the film industry. For instance, in 2004, Bagyi Soe Moe’s film Nga
thu-taba yaukkya meinma (Men and Women are all Human) told an
HIV/AIDS story and won several awards, the first time a film on this
subject had been supported. This corresponds with a recent change in
government policy, with a new approach backing HIV/AIDS aware-
ness campaigns, previously considered inappropriate for public
discussion.
Most recently, the government has described a seven-point plan
designed to aid the emergence of a new ‘genuine democracy’. Aung
Zaw suggests that a new film, From Jungle to Disciplined Democracy
might be appropriate. The continued control by the Picture and Video
Censorship Board has not indicated any change in approach, and a
recent edict forbids actresses from appearing on screen in Western-style
trousers and skirts, requiring that they wear only traditional dress. Other
restrictions include no filming to be undertaken on university

30
Min Zin, supra note 24; see also ‘Views of Burmese film director Maung Myo Min
(Yin-Twin-Phit) on censorship’, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), Website:
www.english.dvb.no/news.php?id=4570.
31
Mention is made in a number of sources of a new film in production concerned with
the ‘Salone’, or Sea Gypsies of the Mergui archipelago on the Andaman sea coast in
southern Burma, featuring popular starlet Nandar Hlaing. It is not clear whether this
is a feature film or a documentary. Parts of this area would have been devastated by
the tsunami of 26 December 2004. I have not been able to find out whether the film
was finished and/or released.
276 South East Asia Research

campuses, no scenes of men fighting in front of a crowd, no more than

five punches in any one scene of violence, no pregnant women to die in
childbirth, and only minimal amounts of imitation blood to be used in
accident scenes. Any scene showing a prisoner in jail must show his
cell as clean, tidy and not overcrowded.32
The situation for new filmmakers is thus extremely difficult. As Maung
Myo Min (Yintwin Phyit) recently commented, film directors in Burma
learnt by watching foreign films, not Burmese films. There is no film
school or other training programme, and technological aids are very
limited. A common ‘love, split, reunite’ storyline is the one most
acceptable to the authorities.33 This lack of creative freedom is felt deeply
by those struggling to rejuvenate the Burmese film industry.
The government, however, is actively supporting the maintenance of
a film industry under its control. A text of the address to the Academy
Awards Ceremony of 2004 by Minister for Information Brigadier-
General Kyaw Hsan outlines the intention to improve the quality of
Myanmar films and assist their penetration into foreign nations, men-
tioning in particular Singapore, Korea and China, where Myanmar films
have recently been shown in film festivals. The intention is in part to
encourage locals to want to view Myanmar films and thus avoid the
threat of foreign movies to national culture.34 In August 2005, it was
announced that the government had nominated a film, Secret Mist, to
be shown at upcoming film festivals in South Korea, Sanya City (Hainan)
and Toha (India). Another film, Kyansit Min, based on the life of the
eponymous monarch of Pagan in 1113, was co-produced with the
Malaysian company PWT Co, at Pagan and other locations, and has
been screened in Malaysia and Singapore.35
32
Aung Zaw (2004), Section two, ‘The censor rules Burma’s motion picture industry’,
The Irawaddy, Vol 12, No 3, see Website address at note 17.
33
Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), Website: www.English.dvb.no/news.php?id=4570.
This probably refers to the melodrama form mentioned above; as is the case with
melodramas and ‘soapies’ in the West, such films may speak to issues of great im-
portance to everyday life, particularly to women, even though they are dismissed by
intellectuals and political activists.
34
Item 2, ‘Motion Picture Academy Awards presentation ceremony for 2004 …’, see
Myanmar Information Committee, Yangon Information Sheet No D-3540, 31 De-
cember 2005, Website: www.myanmar-information.net/infosheet/2005/05123.htm;
see also ‘New Light of Myanmar’, Website: www.myanmardigest.com/eng_md/
eindex.html.
35
‘Myanmar to take part in film festivals in Asian countries’: this item was posted
privately on the Asian Cinema News site, attributed to the Chinese People’s Daily,
see Website: www.kfccinema.com/index.php?archive=1125336668&subaction=list-
archive& …
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 277

Thus the film industry in Myanmar shows typical signs of post-

socialist ambiguity. Supported by the government, partly privatized yet
still under strict censorship controls, with an awareness of the position
of national film in the context of foreign film products of far greater
sophistication and attractiveness, filmmaking continues to attract those
interested not only in the commercial but also the artistic and political
possibilities, even as government ministries intervene and attempt to
manage the development of an important and yet inherently unstable
industry.

Lao PDR
A unique account of Lao film history by Bounchao Phichit stands alone
in the print-media English-language literature on the subject. Some
notes from his paper are included here.36 Unlike in Burma and
Cambodia, there seems to have been little exposure to film and no
indigenous industry prior to the Second World War. It is not known
when the first film was shown in Laos, or when the first film was made,
or by whom. This honour is sometimes claimed for a documentary film
made in 1956 with the assistance of Vietnamese filmmakers, one sur-
viving reel of which was found in Huaphanh province in 1999. During
the period from 1945 to 1975, known as the period of the war of libera-
tion, Laos was divided into two zones, each of which had its own
government. A constitutional monarchy based in Vientiane was backed
by the French and US governments, and the Revolutionary or Liber-
ated Zone, based in the north-eastern provinces of Phongsaly and
Huaphanh, was ruled by the Lao National Patriotic Front, which
received support from Vietnam, the Soviet Union and China. Films
began to be made, particularly between 1960 and 1975, competing for
the attention of people on both sides. These films were dedicated to
propaganda and particularly featured newsreels and documentaries about
the war in Laos. Film records were made of the actions of revolution-
ary leaders, with titles such as Dry Season Victory, The Land of Freedom
and 20 Years of the Revolution.37
36
Bounchao Phichit (2001), ‘Laos’, in David Hanan, ed, Film in South East Asia:
Views from the Region, SEAPAVAA in association with the Vietnam Film Institute,
Hanoi, pp 83–92.
37
Xaopi Haeng Karpatiwath (20 Years of the Revolution) was made in 1965; Xayxana
Ladulaeng (Dry Season Victory) was made in 1970; Daen Haeng Issala (The Land
of Freedom) in 1970. These films were designed to expose the atrocities perpetrated
on the Liberated Zone and the use of mass aerial bombing, and its effects. In the
278 South East Asia Research

By an amazing stroke of luck, a great deal of Lao film was preserved

in good condition, unlike many other early national cinema materials.
At some time prior to the 1960s, the Vietnam Film Institute (VFI) in
Hanoi was asked to take care of 1,192 Lao film reels. When Vietnam-
ese film archivists began to collect films to preserve them permanently
in 1965, they found the Lao material in the collection. It includes docu-
mentary footage of local Lao life, the war of Liberation, as well as
many Lao feature films. The VFI repatriated this material to Laos in
1998. In the newly established Lao film archives are a total of 9,000
reels of film shot by Lao, Vietnamese, Soviet and East European
camera crews in the period since the 1960s.
Today there are only nine filmmakers in Laos, all of whom were
educated in Bulgaria, Russia or Czechoslovakia. Somouk (Som Ouk)
Southiponh is the only fully independent film director who works on
his own films (ie he does not accept commissions from government
agencies).38 Som studied filmmaking for nine years at the Faculty of
Film and Television at Charles University in Prague from 1977; five
other Lao students were also studying film there at the same time. His
graduation film, Country of a Million Elephants, made on 16 mm, was
broadcast on Czech television, and he finished a thesis in Czech on
Lao and South East Asian cinema.39
Returning to Lao PDR, he made a well known film in 1988 called
Red Lotus (Bua Daeng), which received several international prizes,
helped by the fact that it was released in Lao with English subtitles.
Based on a script written by Dara Kalaya, the story follows a young
woman who lives in rural Laos before and during the communist
uprising. The story is set in the 1960s and her life provides its
trajectory. As is often found in films made under the influence of com-
munist aesthetics, the female protagonist is portrayed as having all the
ideal characteristics of a Lao woman (she is smart, virtuous, skilled in
handicrafts) but she also loves the ideologies of communism; her name
reflects not only her indigenous beauty, but is symbolic of her

southern zone, the Psychology Department of the Army and the Ministry of Propa-
ganda and Information produced films on the activities of the Lao King and Queen.
These films were screened in cinemas and throughout the countryside in mobile
cinemas.
38
Names, when represented in Romanized script, may be written in two parts, or as
one word. In the case of this director, some references use the single-word spelling,
and others use two words. Both are acceptable and correct, as is also the case with a
number of other names mentioned here, both Lao and Cambodian.
39
I do not know the Czech title of the film.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 279

ideology. With the decline of international communism after the fall of

the Berlin wall, Somouk Suthipon no longer felt obliged to make films
under the socialist imprint, and he turned to making independent films
on a shoestring budget, funded largely by the profits of a bakery, which
he runs with his wife in Vientiane.
Other films have focused on the Lao experience from a US point of
view.40 Becoming American, in English and Hmong, made in the USA
in 1982, tells the story of Hang Sou, his wife and child, sister-in-law
and her five children, awaiting resettlement in a northern Thai refugee
camp, who after six years are able to migrate to the USA. The film
celebrates them as ‘brave refugees’ and pays tribute to their spirit of
survival. Bombies, directed by Jack Silberman and produced in Eng-
lish in the USA in 2000, looks at the secret air war between 1964 and
1973 and the legacy of the unexploded cluster bombs. Using personal
testimonies from groups of Lao people in the USA, the film argues for
the elimination of such weapons in warfare.
More direct expressions of the diaspora experience and its negative
consequences have come from several films made directly or indirectly
by Lao people living in the USA. A short film directed by Nith Lacroix
and Sang Thepkaysone, in Lao with English subtitles, tells of life in
San Francisco’s Tenderloin district for Lao and Cambodian youth. Made
as a video under the title Letter Back Home (1994), it was brought back
to Laos to show to Lao youth in temples and villages to demonstrate
the life of refugee teenagers in America. Another film, Kelly Loves
Tony (1998) by Spencer Nakasako, in English/Mien, tells of the
experiences of young high school graduates of refugee origin in the
USA. Death of a Shaman (2002), directed by Richard Hall and
produced by Fahm Fong Saeyang, looks at Fahm’s father’s life as he
moved from a position of respect in Laos to his hopelessness as his
family was shattered in pursuit of the American dream. These films
join many others made by and with regard to the Cambodian,

40
From some perspectives, it may not be acceptable to include films made within the
country with those made outside it, and most particularly those made by or in close
association with foreign, eg US filmmakers. I can see the point of this objection, as
the conditions of production and circulation, as well as references, will not point
back in the direction of indigenous conditions or viewers, or not in the same way.
However, I am including these here since it is obvious that many Lao people living
as diaspora do regard them as a part of their film-viewing experience, and USA-
oriented films are being shown either officially or otherwise in the Lao PDR. The
complexities arising from the South East Asian diaspora with regard to film war-
rants a full discussion elsewhere.
280 South East Asia Research

Vietnamese, Lao, Lao minority and Thai diaspora in the USA in

particular.
The situation regarding film in the contemporary Lao PDR remains
precarious. The importation of all foreign films, other than Thai, is
generally too costly, and government rules require that all dialogue
must be in Lao (or Thai); if foreign films are to be shown, exhibitors
must provide translations of the screen dialogue, which is read live
over the PA system during projection.41 All Westerns are banned, al-
though Conan the Barbarian was allowed to be screened. Perhaps this
is because Conan is set in a nationally unrecognizable past, whereas
Westerns are unambiguously set in the USA, and conform to narratives
that generally depict violence and glorify Americans as against others
(such as Indians or Mexicans).42
However, since liberalization of the economy and with some encour-
agement from foreign investment, new ventures are opening.
Saycharunsouk Pathammawong, a Lao–American recently returned to
take over and run the family-owned cinema, the Odeon, in Vientiane’s
Chantabouly district, after the death of his father. During the Lao PDR
period, the Odeon had been taken over by the government and used for
government functions and to show propaganda movies. In the reno-
vated cinema, Say is now showing recent Thai and Chinese films and
has hopes of being able to import foreign films such as Bertolucci’s
Little Buddha.

Cambodia
Sources on Cambodian popular culture are very few, although many
works refer to related matters in more general contexts.43 Cambodia, of
41
Many readers may not know that conventional spoken Thai is 70% compatible with
conventional spoken Lao; therefore the move between Lao and Thai language in
film is not a difficult one. However, there are many minorities in Lao PDR who
speak quite different dialects and may understand little Lao and less Thai. Film and
viewing experiences of such minorities in Lao PDR are completely unknown. The
Thai language, however, has little or nothing in common with Khmer or Burmese,
although, as noted earlier, there are many cultural similarities and compatibilities.
42
Not to ignore the fact that Westerns often feature narratives about ‘good’ versus
‘bad’ Americans, or that rampant, selfish capitalists such as large landowners are
often pitted against good and honest smallholders, much like local peasantries in
South East Asia. Perhaps these subtleties are lost on the censors.
43
See Judy Ledgerwood, May Ebihara and Carol Mortland, eds (1995), Cambodian
Culture Since 1975, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, for probably the best over-
view, and David P. Chandler (1996), Facing the Cambodian Past: Selected Essays
1971–1994, Allen and Unwin, North Sydney, for acute perspectives on Cambodian
history, politics and culture.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 281

all the socialist states, had the most vibrant film industry, with studios
producing more than 50 films a year for local audiences in the 1950–60
period, and with more than 30 movie theatres open during this period.
Some excellent recent research has been carried out by Ingrid Muan
and Ly Daravuth on film in Cambodia using documents from the
National Archives and interviews with filmmakers and others.44 The
record is particularly rich for Cambodian film due to the enthusiasm of
Prince (then King) HM Norodom Sihanouk, who was himself a very
dedicated, although perhaps not very good filmmaker.45 The history of
film can be traced through the period of the French Protectorate (1863–
1953), the Sihanouk Regime (1955–70), Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic
(1970–75), the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (1979–89) and the
present constitutional monarchy.
The Khmer word for ‘theatre’ is lakhaoun, comparable with the Thai
word for traditional dance-drama performance, lakhorn.46 Elaborate
documentary films were especially popular during the colonial period;
both European and Cambodian audiences saw primarily French, but
also Chinese and American films. In the 1960s, European films contin-
ued to be shown, while locally made films were considered appropriate
mainly for farmers, labourers and other working class people.47
The King was an enthusiastic producer, director, scriptwriter, star
and music composer, and has continued to make films into recent times,

44
Ingrid Muan and Ly Daravuth (2001), ‘Cambodia’, in David Hanan, ed, Film in
South East Asia: Views from the Region, SEAPAVAA and the Vietnam Film Insti-
tute, Hanoi.
45
For a comprehensive discussion of Sihanouk’s own films and views on film, see
Eliza Romney (2001), ‘King, artist, film-maker: the films of Norodom Sihanouk’, in
David Hanan, Film in South East Asia: Views from the Region, SEAPAVAA and the
Vietnam Film Institute, Hanoi. Sihanouk’s latest film was made in 1995; its plot
resonates with that of Pous Keng Kang (The Snake King). Set in contemporary Cam-
bodia, it features a young prince who is told by his guru that he alone can save the
country. The guru warns that marriage is impossible because sexual relations would
break the spell preserving the prince’s youth, and would result in the revelation of
his true 100-year-old self. Nevertheless, the prince persuades the girl he loves to
marry him, and after consummating the marriage the prince dies and the girl becomes a
Buddhist nun. See Website: www.einaudi.cornell.edu/South Eastasia/outreach/film/
cfilm.html.
46
In contemporary Thai, the term lakhorn is used to refer to multipart melodramas or
‘soapies’. Many traditional performance genres are similar in Thailand and Cambo-
dia and there are many similarities in their film history. Further work is needed on
these parallels and connections. Khmer culture was dominant over much of present-
day Thailand north-west of Bangkok until perhaps the eleventh century; continuities
in religion and culture would seem to have ancient roots.
47
Ingrid Muan and Ly Daravuth, supra note 44.
282 South East Asia Research

even while in exile. However, almost all of these kinds of films

disappeared entirely from Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime.
In 1975, all foreign movies were banned. Hundreds of actors, writers
and directors were executed. The only films available were made by
Chinese technicians, using Chinese filmmaking and propaganda tech-
niques. When the Vietnamese entered Cambodia in 1979 and installed
a new government, movie houses were re-opened and the new govern-
ment showed films from Vietnam, Russia and the Eastern European
bloc, particularly Czechoslovakia. These were shown free of charge in
movie houses and outdoor spaces. Mobile film units travelled through-
out the countryside; the films emphasized the socialist aims of the new
regime. Few non-socialist-origin movies entered Cambodia at this time,
but as the regime changed and with new technologies, private entre-
preneurs began to smuggle videos into the country and show them in
secret, charging fees. VCRs and video cameras became available for
purchase in Cambodia, and individuals began to shoot their own films,
sometimes screened in private video cafés. These often copied stories
from Chinese and Thai films, translating them into Khmer. By the 1990s,
Cambodians had ready access to TV and VCR, not only in private homes
but in coffee bars and restaurants, which showed cable TV and pirated
videos.
Following these changes, the demand for film shown in theatres abated
and in the early 1990s, movie houses in Phnom Penh closed down.
Attendance had dwindled, and the state-owned movie theatres consti-
tuted valuable property that could be used for other purposes. Although
a wide variety of imported films was available for local and home screen-
ing, Cambodian-made films were still subject to strong censorship and
many, even after completion, were then refused permission to be shown.
Nevertheless, feature films and documentaries continued to be produced.
Rithy Panh is internationally the most famous Cambodian filmmaker.
His early films from the 1960s and 70s have recently been shown in
Phnom Penh with huge crowds attending – either because of renewed
interest in local cultural production, or nostalgia for a past era, or both.
He is better known in the West for his use of cinema verité techniques
and documentary styles to expose the plight of the Cambodian
people during and after the Khmer Rouge period. His first film of the
1990s, Rice People (Les Gens de la Rizière, 1993–4) simply portrayed
the normal life of rural people. Later films focused on the situation
during the Khmer Rouge period in such films as One Evening After the
War (Un Soir Après la Guerre, 1997), The Land of Wandering Souls
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 283

(La Terre des Ames Errantes, 1999), S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing
Machine (2002), and others.
Although the popularity of film screened in cinemas waned, there
are now signs of renewed interest. Since 2002, two new cinemas have
been opened (with a third in the wings) by private owners who charge
filmmakers a fee to show their films and take 50% of the ticket sales.
This has also meant a new role for the very talented marquee artists
whose work advertises current shows at the movie theatres.48
While the Cambodian appetite for local film remains strong, movies
from Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand are also now flooding the
country. A new direction emerged with the first Thai–Cambodian co-
production in 2003. A famous classic of Cambodian film was the 1960s
drama Pous Keng Kang (The Snake King) by Tea Lim Kun, retelling a
legend of a peasant woman seduced by the King of the Snakes, starring
Chea Yutton and Dy Savate (Saveth).49 This is based on a very well
known narrative, taught widely in Cambodian schools and expressed
in various forms in the popular cultures of north-east Thailand as well
as in Cambodia.50 In 1999, filmmaker Fay Sam Ang decided to update
the story and was able to involve a Thai production company, which
provided funding and assistance. The film has been released under several
titles and is referred to with variant spellings: for example, some sources
refer to it as Kuon Puos Ken Kang or Kous Pos Kaing Korng, others as
Ngu Geng Gong (which actually refers to a 1980s Thai version of the
story released under that title in Thailand and subsequently circulated
more widely, as well as a Cambodian version known in English as The
Snake Girl – see note 49). In the USA and Europe, it is circulating
under the title, Snaker. The film was made on 35 mm and cost around
US$10,000. It stars Winai Kraibutr (one of Thailand’s most popular
male actors and star of Bang Rajan and Nang Nak) as the male lead,

48
See ‘Scary Movie’, The Cambodia Daily, 3–4 May 2002, Website:
www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/selected_features/story3.htm; also ‘Behind the
screen’, The Cambodia Daily, 29–30 June 2002, Website: www.camnet.com/kh/
cambodia.daily/selected_features.
49
One source (Wise Kwai’s Thai Film Journal) states that Dy Saveth starred in the 1971
version of the film known as Snake Girl, or Ngu Keng Kong. Attempts to sort out which
film under which title starred whom, and when, are very frustrating.
Website: www.Rottentomatoes.com/vine/journal_view.php?journalid=100000335
&entry.
50
I have seen reference to a PhD thesis by George Chigas, ‘Tum Taev, a study of a
Cambodian literary classic’, London, but have not been able to locate a precise
reference to the work, which seems to be concerned with a classical literary version
of the same story.
284 South East Asia Research

with other main roles taken by Cambodian actors including 17-year-

old Pich Chanbormey as the daughter of the Snake King and Om Portevy
as the mother.51 The drama is constructed around two different love
triangles, one impure and one pure, as is often the case with popular
Cambodian stories, and differs considerably from the earlier
Cambodian version.52
In a humble home in the jungle lives a woman, Nang Ni, her drunken
bad-tempered husband and their young daughter. Lonely and sexually
frustrated, Nang Ni encounters a giant snake one day while out gather-
ing food with her daughter. The snake grips her with his eyes and a
beam of magical light passes between them. Later, the snake-king (for
it is he) comes to her bed and takes on the form of a devastatingly
handsome man. They sleep together often, spied on by the daughter
who realizes that the lover is in fact the giant snake they had seen in the
jungle. The husband returns from a period working away from home,
and sees that his wife is pregnant. His daughter tells him about the
snake lover. Furious, the husband goes to the jungle to find the snake;
he kills what he thinks is the snake and makes his unwitting wife eat it.
However, it is the wrong snake; nevertheless, he continues searching
for the snake lover and finally finds and kills him. Returning home, he
then murders his wife by slitting open her belly. As she falls stricken to
the ground, all the baby snakes escape from her uterus; the daughter is
bitten and dies. The husband pursues and kills the snakes, but one
manages to escape and bites and kills him.
The surviving baby snake grows into the beautiful snake-girl, Soraya.
She can transform her snake-hair into normal hair, but only with the
assistance of a magic ring, but once she loses her virginity she will
change into a serpent forever. She is raised in the jungle away from
normal humans by a magically powerful white-robed hermit/ monk (in
Thai, a person of this kind is referred to as a reusii, who is not

51
See Massimo Riva, ‘“Snaker” e la figlia del re de serpenti’, at www.asiaexpress.it/
aaoo0.html; see also summary information at www.geocities.com/kaingkorng.
52
In the earlier version, running time 87 minutes, an evil woman and her lover poison
her old husband in order to inherit his valuable estate. A young woman was adopted
by the old man and raised as his own. The wife and lover chase her through the
woods and throw her into a cage, where she is surrounded and supported by the
snakes, one of which makes her pregnant. Some years later, the evil wife dies; the
man who helped her murder the old husband inherits everything, but he has a son (by
an earlier wife) who falls in love with the snake girl. She is captured by the father
and is about to be sacrificed in a strange ceremony, but her snake friends arrive to
rescue her. See Website: http://mitglied.lycos.de/uzuaki/reviews/snakegirl.htm?
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 285

a Buddhist monk, but more of a Hindu guru/shaman). Following an

accident, she rescues a handsome young man, scion of an elite family
living nearby. He is grateful to her, and not realizing she is a snake-
girl, he brings her to live in his family house. His fiancée is naturally
jealous; she and her appalling mother seek the advice of an elderly
female spirit medium, who, sitting in front of an altar of powerful
images and dressed in black, laughs maniacally as she recommends
magical potions and spells to eliminate Soraya. Others of his family
accept Soraya, but one tries to rape her; as a result she briefly turns
into a snake again and kills him. The young man, however, does not
suspect anything and falls deeply in love with her. They travel together
on a family outing to Angkor Wat and are pictured wandering through
the ruins hand in hand to a typically romantic soundtrack. Later, again
as a snake, she bites both the fiancée and the fiancée’s mother, who
also die. Finally, Soraya and her lover have sex. At once her skin begins to
turn into snake-skin and, horrified, she runs away into the jungle to
find the guru who raised her.
In the climactic crisis scene, the white-robed shaman and black-clad
spirit medium use all their powers on one another. After a long and
dangerous exchange, the spirit medium is finally defeated; the shaman
uses the last of his powers to give Soraya the ability to live as a human
and overcome her snake origins; she is reunited with her lover and we
assume they will live happily ever after.
Pous Keng Kang has been shown in locations such as the French
Cultural Centre and there have been outdoor viewings in a courtyard of
the local television station. It is available on VCD and DVD and is
circulating in the USA, available through online ordering from
companies specializing in providing film for audiences of diaspora. This
film does not address the social or political realities of Cambodia or
refer to the wider world beyond. There is no trace of ‘Hollywood’ in it,
but anyone familiar with Thai film will note the narrative thrust and
stylistic gestures so frequently encountered in the Thai ‘family drama’:
the gaze and its transmissions, the virtuous maiden (though in this case
a snake-maiden) posed against the vulgar, grasping fiancée and her
mother, and the power of spirit forces underlying what seem to be
human destinies.53 As is the case in popular African film, such films
are directed towards an audience whose collective understandings

53
See Annette Hamilton (1992), ‘Family dramas: film and modernity in Thailand’,
Screen, Vol 33, No 3, pp 259–273.
286 South East Asia Research

derive from ontological and mythological bases far from those under-
pinning contemporary social analysis. No doubt the Thai influence
derives from commercial decisions, and having Winai Kraibutr as the
male lead is designed to broaden the appeal in Thailand. This is a kind
of ‘border crossing’ that is likely to become increasingly common in
South East Asia, although not without contest, misunderstanding and
sometimes international incident.54

Conclusion
While those interested in art and experimental films, and in the tradi-
tions of European filmmaking, may see the low-budget, low-quality
popular cinemas of Asia (and elsewhere) as a kind of throw-away ‘trash’,
it is important to realize that in many parts of the world, precisely these
kinds of cinema are integrated into the emerging visual culture far more
effectively than the global cinema productions of Hollywood (or Hong
Kong). While educated elites may generally prefer imported films and
films marked by ‘quality’ (which are generally very expensive to
import or to make), many local, rural and small-town audiences prefer
films that relate to their own historical and cultural symbolic worlds.
There, local entrepreneurs use cheap video cameras and amateur or
local actors to make feature films that focus on magic, witchcraft, money,
power, dreams and mysteries, creating a vast corpus of cheap films
originally circulated at low cost on VCR and now on DVD, shown in
public places such as buses and cafés, sold in local markets and not
subject to copyright restrictions, thus creating an alternative visual culture
to that of the elites in towns and cities.
54
A major incident occurred in 2003 when Thai actress Suwana Kongying, visiting
Phnom Penh, stated that she hated Cambodians and wanted Cambodia to return the
whole Angkor Wat temple area to Thailand, from which she asserted it was stolen. An
ecstatic crowd burned down the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh, and robbed Thai-
owned shops and hotels. Crowds of people in Bangkok then assembled to take revenge.
Subsequently, the actress claimed she had never said these things and that the Cambo-
dian media had invented them. Hun Sen, the Prime Minister, stated that the situation
was provoked by extremists in a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
(There are certain views in China about the position of South East Asia with regard to
US hegemony, which there is no room to explore here.) The commentary by Andrew
Krushinsky, of Pravda, on this matter suggests that the situation may have been
caused by Cambodian paparazzi, since US media ‘keep on sowing the seeds of immo-
rality and discord all over the world’. See Pravda.RU, ‘Thai movie star caused rampage
in Cambodia’, Website: http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/01/31/42845.html. As a
result, Thai films were banned from Cambodian TV, but recently a Cambodian del-
egation visited Thailand seeking more collaboration in filmmaking. Dy Saveth, referred
to above (see note 49) is now 62 and a professor of art at Phnom Penh University.
 Cinema in socialist South East Asia 287

But in the case of the socialist states of South East Asia, even city
folk are attracted by local films with local actors and referents. The
experience of cinema as a form of entertainment was interrupted for
decades, as it was forced to conform to its function as propaganda
vehicle for the various regimes that utilized its possibilities much as
they were being utilized elsewhere in the socialist/communist world.
The recuperation of a different experience of film is hesitant, uneven
and precarious, but there are promising signs that new approaches to
film are being developed largely under the impulse of technologies
that allow novel approaches and wide circulation beyond the immedi-
ate context of government regimes. The influence of Western styles,
images and ideas filter in, but with unpredictable outcomes. Equally
important has been the legacy of decades of exposure to Thai film,
which has been the dominant film form in the region in recent times. A
possible transnational regional market in local co-productions seems
likely. Would such films be ‘worthwhile’ or is this another form of
cultural imperialism? A whole set of questions is thus opened up about
the purposes and values of visual cultures in the twenty-first century,
and the domination by the marketplace, as well as aesthetics, taste and
style at local levels, all of which remain to be investigated.

* * *
Note: I have carried out some research in the Archives d’Outre Mer
(Aix-en-Provence) and Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris) on the history
of filmmaking in the French Indo-Chinese colonies. This has informed
the present paper, but I have not provided archival details, which can
wait for a fuller publication. Further research in Burma, Cambodia and
Lao PDR is proposed, including work on archival collections, some of
which have recently been re-housed and are in the process of preserva-
tion and/or documentation. The recent rise in interest in national archival
collections has been heartening. Many overseas archives also contain
material of interest to this project, including the National Archives of
the Czech Republic in Prague.