Muai Thai Cinema and the Burdens of Thai Men

Abstract

Competing cultures among Thai men have not yet been fully explored in the studies of Thai films released since the economic crisis of 1997. In this article, the author chooses to study a selection of four muai Thai films - Muai Thai, Nai Khanom Tom [Mr Khanom Tom: A Muai Thai Legend] (2003), Ong Bak (2003), Tom Yum Goong [The Protector] (2005) and Beautiful Boxer (2004) - to examine gendered tensions and changing cultures of Thai men after the 1997 economic crisis. The author argues that Thai men are consciously eager to shoulder the nation's economic development failures and cultural chaos, brought about by economic globalization and the transnationalization of culture since the 1960s. Messages from the movies convince their audiences that it is, and should be, men's historical burden to defend the country. Muai Thai films illuminate Thai men's desire and imagination to reclaim their patriotic heroism, which is needed to restore the country's troubled image and its struggling performance on the global stage. They speak about what it means to be Thai men in the context of cultural and economic globaliziation. The author further argues that muai Thai, once an exclusively male cultural domain, has found itself facing new challenges from the feminization, commercialization and internationalization of this national pastime. Feminized and internationalized muai Thai could also be employed as a coherent vehicle to express aspects of contemporary Thai masculinity beyond its convention. In other words, muai Thai cinema is as nuanced as other cinematic narratives, despite accusations from critics about its poor and unsophisticated plots.