“ทักษิณอ่วมหนัก...” (‘Thaksin is in serious trouble...’)

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ordered former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to pay ฿1.76 billion (more than $500 million) in back taxes, in relation to his sale of the Shin Corp. telecom company almost two decades ago. The verdict overturned previous rulings by the Central Tax Court and the Court of Appeal.

Thaksin sold a 48% stake in Shin Corp. to Singaporean company Temasek in 2006, just a few days after his government had changed the tax code and increased the legal limit on foreign ownership of telecom firms, in a blatant manipulation of the law for personal gain. The sale was one of the key factors leading to protests against him, which quickly escalated and led to a coup.

The Supreme Court had previously confiscated more than half of Thaksin’s assets, ruling that he had attempted to conceal his wealth by transferring his Shin Corp. shares to his children. Thaksin is currently serving a one-year prison sentence for corruption, though he remains the most influential figure in recent Thai politics.

Thaksin’s sister Yingluck, also a former PM, was also subject to a substantial fine earlier this year. She was ordered to repay ฿10 billion to the Ministry of Finance, in recompense for losses incurred by her government’s rice subsidy policy. (She had previously been fined an extraordinary ฿37.5 billion, though the amount was reduced by the Supreme Administrative Court.)

On its front page today, the Thai Rath (ไทยรัฐ) newspaper writes that “ทักษิณอ่วมหนัก” (‘Thaksin is in serious trouble’). In addition to his tax bill, the Office of the Attorney General announced yesterday that it will appeal against Thaksin’s acquittal on lèse-majesté charges. (This decision contradicts the recommendation of an OAG committee in September, which voted against an appeal.)

A Teeraphanny Joint

A series of short films by Teeraphan Ngowjeenanan, all titled A Teeraphanny Joint (in homage to Spike Lee), were shown online yesterday as part of this year’s Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน). Teeraphan’s films, divided into twenty episodes, all document the recent student protest movement, and all except the final episode were filmed between August and November 2020, during the first wave of public protests.

The director’s focus is on the protesters themselves, rather than the riot police who attempted to suppress them. He emphasises the solidarity shown by the demonstrators, and the jubilant atmosphere at some of the rallies. He also highlights incidental details — or what he described on Instagram as “micro situations” — that might otherwise be overlooked.

These are the twenty episodes:

Constitution-Monarchy

Episode 1 (กษัตริย์-รัฐธรรมนูญ) — a protest at Democracy Monument on 16th August 2020. A man who is not a member of the protest movement nevertheless voices his support, in a pragmatic manner, for the aims of the protesters.

I Know I’m No Good

Episode 2 (หนูรู้หนูมันเลว) — a protest by the Bad Student group outside the Ministry of Education on 5th September 2020.

Protester Anthem

Episode 3 (เพลงชาติผู้ประท้วง) — Act สิ Art, an art fair and concert held at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on 12th September 2020, organised by the Free Arts collective. The crowd sing Do You Hear the People Sing? at 6pm as an alternative to the national anthem. (Supong Jitmuang’s documentary Mob 2020–2021 also features Do You Hear the People Sing? as a protest anthem.)

Life Firing Zone

Episode 4 (พื้นที่การใช้กระสุนจริง) — 99 Dead, a performance on 19th September 2020 outside the Supreme Court, marking the tenth anniversary of the April and May 2010 crackdown. (The performance was directed by Teerawat Mulvilai of B-Floor Theatre, and organised by Red Comrades and Free Arts.)

Kult Was Here

Episode 5 (คัลท์เคยอยู่นี่) — a ‘กูkult’ sticker covering a portrait of the King, on 19th September 2020. (A man was later charged with lèse-majesté for affixing the sticker to the portrait.)

There was a significant protest at Thammasat University on the same day, which then migrated to nearby Sanam Luang overnight. Mob 2020–2021 includes footage of this event, though Teeraphan focuses only on the sticker.

Love Song

Episode 6 (ร้องเพลงรัก) — Chaiamorn Kaewwiboonpan performing his hit single 12345 I Love You at a protest near the parliament building on 24th September 2020. The song was popular among the protest movement, and demonstrators shouted “ai hia Tu” instead of the original lyrics — “I love you” — during the chorus. (Ai hia is a strong insult, and Tu is Prayut Chan-o-cha’s nickname.)

Have a Good Night

Episode 7 (ขอให้มีค่ำคืนที่ดี) — Arnon Nampa leading a crowd in chanting “ai hia” as MPs pass by in a convoy of vehicles. The politicians were leaving parliament on 24th September 2020 after voting to delay plans to amend the constitution.

Free Our Friends

Episode 8 (ปล่อยเพื่อนเรา) — a protest outside the police headquarters on 13th October 2020, demanding the release of protesters and others charged with lèse-majesté.

Marching Street Art

Episode 9 (ศิลปะบนถนน) — graffiti on the road at a protest near Nang Loeng on 14th October 2020. (On the same day, thousands of protesters marched from Democracy Monument to Government House, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency. Again, the events are included in Mob 2020–2021, though not in A Teeraphanny Joint.)

Come Together

Episode 10 (มาชุมนุมกันโดยได้นัดหมาย) — a large-scale protest at Ratchaprasong on 15th October 2020, held in defiance of the state of emergency.

Water Crisis

Episode 11 (วิกฤตการณ์น้ำ) — on 16th October 2020, riot police were deployed against the demonstrators for the first time, using water cannon laced with tear gas to dispurse a protest at Siam Square. Footage of the confrontation is included in Chatchawan Thongchan’s From Forest to City (อรัญนคร), Jarut Wisawong’s Twas Partly Love, and Partly Fear, Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s I a Pixel, We the People (ข้าพเจ้าคือพิกเซล, พวกเราคือประชาชน), and Thunska Pansittivorakul’s Danse Macabre (มรณสติ).

Teeraphan doesn’t show the water cannon itself. Instead, he films volunteers as they carry bottled water to the protesters, to wash the tear gas from their eyes.

Communication Skill

Episode 12 (ทักษะการสื่อสาร) — a protest on 18th October 2020 at Victory Monument.

We Dance, We Sing

Episode 13 (เราเต้น เราร้อง) — a musician performing at a protest on 19th October 2020.

Cancellation Request

Episode 14 (คำขอยกเลิก) — a march from Victory Monument to Government House on 21st October 2020, calling for Prayut’s resignation as PM.

Love Song 2

Episode 15 (ร้องเพลงรัก 2) — another clip of Chaiamorn performing 12345 I Love You, this time outside Klongprem Central Prison on 23rd October 2020.

Cheer Up

Episode 16 (เชียร์ขึ้นไป) — a protest outside the German embassy on 26th October 2020.

Speech of Freedom

Episode 17 (การพูดในเสรีภาพ) — a rally outside Klongprem Central Prison on 3rd November 2020, to celebrate Arnon’s release on bail. He was freed at one minute after midnight, and gave a speech to the waiting crowd.

Wrap Up

Episode 18 (ห่อหุ้ม) — a protest on 14th November 2020, during which white sheets were draped over Democracy Monument.

Support-Resistant

Episode 19 (แนวรับ-แนวต้าน) — a protest outside parliament on 17th November 2020, with demonstrators washing their eyes with water after riot police used tear gas to disperse them. (Teeraphan was far from the front line, though Mob 2020–2021 and Sorayos Prapapan’s Yellow Duck Against Dictatorship include footage of the incident.)

The Country Belongs to the People

Episode 20 (ประเทศนี้เป็นของราษฎร) — a commemoration on 24th June 2021 marking the eighty-ninth anniversary of the 1932 democratic revolution.

Red Is the Orangest Color

Buariyate Eamkamol’s documentary Red Is the Orangest Color had its premiere screening yesterday, as part of this year’s online Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน). The film highlights an ideological shift away from Pheu Thai — the traditional party of pro-democracy red-shirt supporters — towards the more progressive ‘orange movement’ represented by the People’s Party.

This trend is hardly surprising, as Pheu Thai broke their repeated pledges not to join forces with the pro-military Palang Pracharath after the 2023 election. Many Pheu Thai voters felt betrayed by the party, and turned instead to the rightful election winners, Move Forward (the previous incarnation of the People’s Party).

This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the crackdown on red-shirts in Bangkok in 2010. At an event commemorating the anniversary, Buariyate interviewed a red-shirt protester about the violence she witnessed on 10th April 2010. She also spoke movingly about her son who, being too young to vote himself, asked her to vote for Move Forward on his behalf in the last election.

The film captures this generational shift, and the palpable tension it created at the commemorative event, as Buariyate’s camera picks out glimpses of orange among the crowd. The speakers at the commemoration were veteran red-shirt leaders; one is heard in the film, but not shown on camera, as his speech was too sensitive.

Stanley Kubrick: New York Jewish Intellectual

Nathan Abrams wrote a chapter on Stanley Kubrick’s Jewish identity in the Kubrick anthology New Perspectives in 2015, which he expanded in 2018 in his book Stanley Kubrick: New York Jewish Intellectual. His central thesis is that, although Kubrick was secular in his outlook, there is a “hidden Jewish substratum” in Kubrick’s films.

Abrams “plumbs the depths of Kubrick’s Jewishness”, decoding apparent references to Judaism throughout the Kubrick filmography, and identifying instances of Kubrick removing explicitly Jewish elements in pre-production. The book challenges “the conventional dogma that while Kubrick was born a Jew, he was not a Jewish director”, though Abrams also acknowledges that “Kubrick never perceived himself as a Jewish director”, which seems to invalidate his argument.

If this approach sounds familiar, that’s because Geoffrey Cocks has previously written about The Shining’s supposed coded references to the Holocaust. Like Cocks, Abrams over-analyses Kubrick’s films, and their joint methodology — imposing an overarching Jewish interpretation on unconnected minor details — feels forced and unconvincing.

Abrams is on firmer ground when discussing Eyes Wide Shut, as the identity of that film’s central character, Bill Harford, was verifiably changed from Jewish to non-Jewish. (Kubrick discussed this issue with Frederic Raphael, and Raphael quotes their conversations in his memoir, Eyes Wide Open.) But even in this case, Abrams goes too far, such as his absurd misinterpretation of Harford’s name: “Harford also sounds like the town of Hertford in England, near where Kubrick lived, and his home country of Hertfordshire, which, as he’d have known, has a high concentration of Jewish residents.”

Backyard Cinematic

Backyard Cinematic, a new microcinema in Trang, is preparing to host a festival of thirty classic films from Thai and world cinema. เทศกาลดูหนังดี ฟรี 30 เรื่อง (‘good movie festival: 30 free films’) begins tomorrow, and includes screenings of Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Mundane History (เจ้านกกระจอก) and By the Time It Gets Dark (ดาวคะนอง), among many other highlights.

The Shining

Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic The Shining is returning to cinemas on general release on 11th December, to mark its forty-fifth anniversary. The Shining has been shown in Bangkok several times before. It was screened at the (now sadly demolished) Scala cinema in 2020, just a week before the coronavirus lockdown. (A previously scheduled screening at the Scala in 2019 was cancelled.) It was also shown at Siri House in 2019, and was screened twice at Cinema Winehouse: in 2015 and 2018.

The Criterion Collection, no. 1290Eyes Wide Shut

Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut, has been released on 4k and blu-ray by the Criterion Collection (no. 1290), in a new transfer scanned from the original negative. The most striking feature of the Criterion version is its high grain level, which is an accurate representation of the theatrical 35mm prints. Previous DVD, blu-ray, and HD-DVD editions from Warner Bros. had removed much of the grain, resulting in an inappropriately smooth image.

As is typical for Criterion releases, they have supplemented Eyes Wide Shut with plenty of bonus features, including the short documentaries Tracing Eyes Wide Shut: Inside the Stanley Kubrick Archive and Never Just a Dream: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut. The teaser clip shown at the ShoWest trade fair — the only Eyes Wide Shut publicity material prepared by Kubrick before his death — is also included, making its first appearance on video.

Some of the bonus features from the previous Warner Bros. editions are not present on the Criterion releases, most notably the documentary The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut. (There is also a new Eyes Wide Shut documentary, SK13, which hasn’t been released on video.)

Eyes Wide Shut was censored on its US theatrical release, to obtain an ‘R’ rating, though the Criterion transfer is from the uncensored international version. There were two alterations made to all video releases: the digital removal of an accidental reflection of a crew member, and the replacement of Jocelyn Pook’s Meditations on the soundtrack (as it featured a recital from the Bhagavad Gita). Unfortunately, these changes are replicated in the Criterion transfer.

Most of Kubrick’s films were originally released on video in open matte format (as opposed to widescreen), and this also applied to the Eyes Wide Shut DVDs from Warner Bros. The Criterion transfer, on the other hand, is matted to preserve the film’s 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio.

Eyes Wide Shut is the ninth Kubrick film to be released as part of the Criterion Collection, on a variety of video formats. Criterion previously issued The Killing, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, and 2001 on laserdisc, and Spartacus on DVD. They have released The Killing, Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, and Barry Lyndon on blu-ray, with Barry Lyndon also on 4k. The blu-ray of The Killing also included Killer’s Kiss.

Panorama

President Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion, after it broadcast an episode of its long-running documentary series Panorama that edited one of his speeches in a misleading way. A letter from Trump’s lawyer accuses the BBC of making “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” in the programme.

The Panorama episode, Trump: A Second Chance?, featured an extract from a speech Trump gave on the morning of 6th January 2021, the day of the attempted insurrection by Trump supporters at the US Capitol building in Washington. At an early point in the speech, Trump said: “we’re gonna walk down, and I’ll be there with you... We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol, and we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” The speech continued for almost an hour, and in the final passages Trump’s tone became more combative: “And we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”

However, Panorama edited three soundbites from the speech together seemlessly, making Trump appear to say: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol, / and I’ll be there with you / And we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.” This went beyond the usual editing for brevity and clarity, as it changed the sequence of his words and spliced together lines that were delivered almost an hour apart. But it did not fundamentally alter the meaning of Trump’s speech, as he was impeached for inciting violence at the Capitol.

The episode was broadcast twice last year: on BBC1 on 28th October, and repeated on BBC2 on 2nd November. Under UK defamation law, a one-year statute of limitations applies, meaning that Trump could not now sue the BBC in the UK. His home state, Florida, has a two-year statute of limitations for defamation, and Trump’s legal letter to the BBC states that he intends to sue under Florida’s defamation law.

Although a lawsuit would fall within Florida’s statute of limitations, Trump would be almost certain to lose a libel case, as the Panorama episode was not broadcast or streamed by any of the BBC’s American TV services. (BBC1 and BBC2 are UK domestic channels. The programme was available via the BBC iPlayer for a year after its first broadcast, though that service is geoblocked outside the UK.) As the Panorama episode was not accessible to an American audience, it does not fall within the remit of a Florida court.

Panorama’s editing of the Trump speech was criticised in an internal BBC report by Michael Prescott, a former BBC advisor, who accused the programme of “taking a distinctly anti-Trump stance.” His report was leaked to The Daily Telegraph, which published it on 4th November. Two of the BBC’s most senior executives, Director-General Tim Davie and head of BBC News Deborah Turness, both resigned over the controversy five days later. Trump wrote a Truth Social post describing Davie and Turness as “very dishonest”, and thanked the Telegraph for its coverage.

Davie is the third BBC director-general to resign over a controversial programme. Greg Dyke quit alongside BBC chairman Gavin Davies in 2004, following the suicide of David Kelly, who had been the source for a Radio 4 report about the government allegedly ‘sexing up’ a dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. George Entwistle resigned in 2012 after Newsnight falsely accused Alistair McAlpine of child abuse.

This is the third time that Trump has personally taken legal action against a news organisation during his second term. The first occasion was earlier this year, when he sued The Wall Street Journal, claiming that a letter he wrote to Jeffrey Epstein didn’t exist. (Since the WSJ lawsuit was filed, the letter has been published, and Trump continues to deny that he wrote it, even though it’s clearly signed by him.) He also filed a lawsuit against The New York Times and the authors of Lucky Loser.

(Trump’s legal letter to the BBC was sent on 9th November, and he has given them until 14th November to retract the Panorama programme, apologise, and pay unspecified compensation. This five-day notice period before a libel lawsuit can be issued is stipulated under Florida’s defamation law, though when Trump sued the Journal, he gave less than five days notice, issuing his lawsuit only a few days after he called Murdoch seeking a retraction. This could potentially invalidate his case against the Journal.)

Trump has sued numerous other media figures and news organisations over the years, including Bill Maher and CNN. He sued Bob Woodward for copyright infringement, though that case was dismissed. His lawsuit against E. Jean Carroll was also dismissed. His unsuccessful lawsuit against Timothy L. O’Brien’s book TrumpNation sought $5 billion in damages.

Trump has never won a libel case in court, though he has received settlements in two cases. ABC settled after he sued them last year. CBS also agreed to an out-of-court settlement earlier this year after he sued them in 2024.

Occasionally, Trump has filed defamation suits indirectly via his organisations or relatives. His brother sued their niece, Mary Trump, in 2020, though the case was dismissed. A suit filed against the NYT by his presidential campaign also failed. His wife won undisclosed damages from The Daily Telegraph in 2019, and she was awarded $3 million in damages from the Daily Mail in 2017.

The Golden Snail Series

Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s Birth of Golden Snail (กำเนิดหอยทากทอง) will be shown on 20th November as part of The Golden Snail Series (วัฒนธรรม​หอยทากทอง), a programme of four short films by the artist that feature his golden snail motif. The screening will be held at the Surat Osathanugrah Library on Bangkok University’s Pathum Thani campus, and will be followed by a Q&A with the director.

Birth of Golden Snail was banned from the Thailand Biennale in 2018, and had its first public screening at the following year’s 30th Singapore International Film Festival. Its Thai premiere was at the 23rd Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 23), and it was shown last year at Infringes. Chulayarnnon discussed the film in an interview for Thai Cinema Uncensored.

The other short films in the programme are Golden Spiral (โกลเด้น สไปรัล), The Internationale (แองเตอร์นาซิอองนาล), and ANG48 (เอเอ็นจี48). The Golden Snail Series has previously been shown at ภาพสุดท้ายบนผืนผ้า (‘the final images on cloth’), and in Hat Yai and Songkla. Golden Spiral was first shown at Ghost:2561. ANG48 was first shown at Shadow Dancing, and later at Wildtype 2023, ใช้แล้ว ใช้อยู่ ใช้ต่อ (‘I’ve used it, I’m using it, I’ll keep using it’), The 27th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 27), and the Short Film Marathon 27 (หนังสั้นมาราธอน 27).

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (4k blu-ray)

Sergio Leone’s epic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) is the greatest ‘spaghetti western’ ever made, though it has a long and convoluted editing history, with three different cuts supervised by Leone and numerous revisions by MGM. Fortunately, the 4k and blu-ray editions released by Arrow this year are the definitive English-language versions of the film.

When Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo premiered in 1966 in Italy, it included a sequence set in a grotto, which was deleted by Leone for pacing reasons before the general theatrical release. Then, in 1967, Leone removed more than ten minutes of footage for the international version, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. VHS and laserdisc releases were direct transfers of the original theatrical versions (albeit with some missing shots), but later DVDs, blu-rays, and UHDs are restorations and reconstructions.

MGM first attempted to reconstruct the international theatrical version for a 1998 DVD release, though some sequences were sourced from Italian prints, leading to inconsistencies with the 1967 version. In 2002, MGM created a new, extended version utilising all extant footage, including the grotto sequence that Leone himself had removed before the Italian theatrical release. This 2002 version also featured new foley effects and newly looped dialogue in some scenes.

For blu-ray and DVD releases in 2014, MGM remastered their extended version and altered the colour grading, adding an incongruous yellow tint to the image. The extended version was remastered again for new blu-rays and DVDs released by Kino Lorber in 2017, when the yellow tint was removed. 2017 also saw the second attempted reconstruction of the international theatrical version, though this followed the flawed template of the 1998 attempt.

The film was released again by Kino Lorber on 4k UHD and blu-ray in 2021, this time with an almost flawless reconstruction of the international theatrical version (the only inconsistencies being in the title sequence). Reconstruction credits were added to the end credits sequence of this release, and to all UHD, blu-ray, and DVD editions released since 2002.

If these various edits and restorations are too bewildering, the good news is that they have now all been superseded by the new Arrow 4k and blu-ray releases, which use seemless branching, giving the viewer the option to add or remove the additional footage from the MGM extended version. They also include an accurate restoration of the US theatrical release print.

The Arrow discs also feature the longest extant version of the film, running for 181 minutes (almost two minutes longer than any previous print). This version includes two extra sequences: reaction shots of the Angel Eyes character’s arrival, and a shot of Blondie finding an animal skeleton in the desert. The skeleton sequence had previously been available as isolated bonus footage from Kino Lorber, though Arrow has integrated it back into the film for the first time. The Angel Eyes reaction shots have never been available on any video release before.