This is an essential read for anyone interested in Thailand on screen. Russell presents an expert analysis of how Thailand has been envisioned by Western filmmakers, and contrasts this with images by Thai directors as he maps a new wave of Thai filmmaking.

Deborah Shaw, Professor of Film and Screen Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK

Essential reading for those who wish to understand the complex international image of this complex nation. This book interrogates wider contemporary understanding of Thai film, and in doing so offers a welcome examination of changing global attitudes and relationships.

Dr. Mary J. Ainslie, Associate Professor of Film and Media, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, China China

In this book, Andrew Russell explores Western media’s fascination with images of the East by focusing primarily on Thailand as a case study. Russell argues that Hollywood’s representation of Thailand still relies heavily on an Orientalist gaze filled with stereotypes that exoticise and eroticise both the country and its people. Furthermore, he also addresses the impact this has had on Thai filmmakers, who have at times utilised a process of erasure by reducing national specificity in their films to prime them for global export, building on previously successful waves from other areas of Asia, like the J-Horror cycle, that made way for their inclusion in the Western marketplace. Despite these trends, however, this book finds that Thai filmmakers are reclaiming the imagery of their country and people in the arthouse sector, utilising critically divisive slow cinema aesthetics to address pertinent allegorical content. Ultimately, this book argues that through an understanding of the context and culture of production, we can gain new understanding of important political, factual, and artistic history that reveals a unique version of Thailand not previously seen on Western screens. Scholars of film studies, Asian studies, cultural studies, and history will find this book of particular interest.

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Through analyses of Hollywood films, Thai genre cinema, and Thai art films, this book considers the ways in which Thailand and its people have been represented in films distributed to the Western marketplace.

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Chapter 1: The Region of ASEAN – A history

Chapter 2: Thai Film Context

Chapter 3: 21st Century Genre Films

Chapter 4: Asia in the West: Western representations of Thailand

Chapter 5: Thailand as a Historical site of Cultural Conflict Between East and West

Chapter 6: Thailand in the Arthouse

Chapter 7: Thailand through Thai eyes for a Global Audience

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Through analyses of Hollywood films, Thai genre cinema, and Thai art films, this book considers the ways in which Thailand and its people have been represented in films distributed to the Western marketplace.
Read more

Product details

ISBN
9781666952223
Published
2024-12-27
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Weight
485 gr
Height
229 mm
Width
152 mm
Thickness
20 mm
Age
P, 06
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Number of pages
240

Biographical note

Andrew Russell is lecturer in the School of Film, Media, and Creative Technologies at the University of Portsmouth.