Thai Cinema Uncensored

Thai Cinema Uncensored is the first full-length study of Thai film censorship. Informed by access to rare and controversial films, the author provides a history of film censorship in Thailand from its beginnings when films were censored by the police for ideological reasons, to the present when issues such as politics, religion and sex are the main reasons for Thai films being banned. Although a rating system was finally introduced in 2008, film censorship remains bureaucratic, opaque, and conservative. The book also examines how Thai filmmakers approach culturally sensitive subjects, and how their films have been censored as a result. It contains interviews with ten leading directors, including candid and extended conversations with Thai New Wave veterans Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Pen-ek Ratanaruang. The directors all discuss their most controversial films, which range from mainstream studio movies to independent arthouse releases, and explain their responses to censorship: some took the censors to court, while others withdrew their films from Thailand altogether. 

About the Author 

Matthew Hunt is a former features writer and journalism lecturer. He has a Master’s degree in Visual Culture. Since moving to Thailand from the UK in 2004, he has written about Thai culture on his website, Dateline Bangkok. 

What others are saying 

Matthew Hunt’s Thai Cinema Uncensored documents the laughter, the ridiculousness, and the fear behind our fragile facade. I hope that in the near future, this fascinating record will read more like fiction, a horror tinged with comedy, to our young filmmakers.— Apichatpong Weerasethakul