Could the release of a new blockbuster US film sequel undo the work of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and present an altogether different view of Thailand to the world?
First, lets look at the potential reach of the film. Jon Friedman at Marketwatch has a look at the hype behind The Hangover 2, the recently launched film – shot in Bangkok – suggesting that it might gross $100 million in its opening weekend in the US.
From left, Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha and Ed Helms are shown in a scene from, "The Hangover: Part II." Pic: AP.
That, as Friedman points out, would be a landmark making the film the first R-rated or action comedy to break the figure in an opening weekend. Friedman puts this potential down to the film’s multi-audience appeal and word of mouth, which has included a “supersonic push” on social media.
But what marks the popularity of “Hangover II” is that it’s getting a supersonic push from social media. If a movie is achieving a buzz from Twitter, it’s got a leg up at becoming a hit.
You can’t examine a cultural phenomenon nowadays without making a reference to social media, of course.
Facebook and Twitter experts expect “Hangover II” to blow away the competition this weekend. “Can it do $100 million?” Jonathan Taplin, director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at USC, asked rhetorically. “Yes, $100 million this weekend is easily doable.”
Though statistics can be misleading without context and substance, the article goes on to state the film has received more than 1.2 million mentions online.
The sentiment for ‘Hangover’ is very strong and way bigger than any of the other movies coming out in the next two weekends.
Friedman goes on to explain that, the film is built for social media as its core, youthful audience “couldn’t care less what most movie critics think” and will likely share word of the film across Facebook and Twitter.
With that in mind, that the movie is tipped to break records and is making a big splash online. Might its content reflect badly on Bangkok, given the type of gross-out film the original was?
That’s a yes according to Bangkok Post film critic Rithdee Kong who included a few choice phrases in his recent review of the film.
Vulgar and stupid, cinematically, geographically and culturally, The Hangover Part II is one of the worst sequels I’ve ever seen…
The film is rated 18-plus, though I would not advise anybody of any age to go see it…
The proliferation of bad taste is noted as a sub-genre of modern cinema, or at least Hollywood cinema, and sometimes it’s funny and even subversive, like the early Kevin Smith films, but certainly not here, when the sole intent is to make a poor-quality film and capitalise on the popularity of the original…
Kong suggests that the usually conversative Thai film board may have made concessions on a part of having a Hollywood blockbuster shot in the country:
There’s a sort of quiet pride from the authority that the film, a sequel of a blockbuster, chose Thailand as its location, and that’s a real wonder. The law requires a foreign film production to submit a script for approval, and I’m amazed that the film board got something lost in translation.
I’m not being nationalistic; I just said that the film is honest about the way some foreigners perceive this country. But when the film board green-lighted a film that features a monk (robed curiously like a Burmese monk, though he’s obviously a Thai monk in the story) being given a fake blow-job by a monkey _ repeat, a monkey _ and a transvestite hooker recounting a saucy episode in which he shoots his sperm into the orifice of Stu (poor Stu), and the same transvestite playing that unfortunately gag about the meaning of ‘Bangkok’ (Bang-kok, with the stress on the latter syllable), I wonder if, all of the sudden, the tourism people here have grown unconditionally liberal and open-minded.
The irony of a film ‘built for social media’ is that the TAT, like so many organisations in Thailand has only woken up to the potential that Facebook, Twitter and blogs have for getting their message at potential holidaymakers in the west, where social networks have overtaken Google as the most frequent activity online.
What then would the TAT make of comments from the film’s cast and crew who, according to Jaunted.com, are unlikely to be found on the TAT Facebook page.
While promoting the movie, the cast hasn’t made the city sound very appealing either. When asked about his time in Thailand, Ed Helms said, “Severe food poisoning the first week…Let’s just say my body exploded.” But that’s nothing compared to what his co-star Justin Bartha said recently. He told a reporter, “I saw some dirty sh*t in Thailand that got burned into my eyes. I honestly can’t say what because it is so disgusting I feel ashamed for going. I shouldn’t have gone.” Ouch.
Robert Ebert might have summed up it up best his review when he noted,“…let it be said that much of “The Hangover, Part II” plays like an anti-travelogue paid for by a rival tourist destination — Singapore, maybe.” Oooh…burn!
On social media, Jaunted picked out a couple of negatives and highlighted that Americans excited about a new venue for springbreak as probably not the type of visitors that the TAT is looking for… but based on the genre of film, they could hardly expect much else.
A cursory glance on Twitter (as you can do too) shows that most mentions have no sentiment on Thailand although there is the occasion shock at the representation of Bangkok in the film.
Here’s a selection I came across all within an hour of each other.
While a few tweets don’t, and can’t, represent the opinion of all Americans, as the film is watched but many more there are likely to be a great many others forming opinions and assumptions of Bangkok made based on what is seen on the big screen.
While clearly the film has a far greater reach across the US than the TAT could ever dream of enjoying.
When we bear in mind that news of the arrest of an American citizen on lese majeste charges has spread like wildfire across the country – see here for yourself – hitting Washington Post, Reuters, NY Times, The Boston Globe and others, Thailand is testing the ‘all news is good news’ theory stateside.
With such a different image of Thailand being propelled across the web right now, how will the TAT respond with its next campaign?
