The Bodysnatchers - Bangkok

I want you to imagine the scene when the producer of The Bodysnatchers – Thailand met with his Thai agent. The Producer (“P” in the exchange set out below) has heard that Bangkok is running with ruthless, blood crazed lunatics fighting each other to retrieve the bodies from the many road accidents in the Thai capital. The Agent (“A” in the same exchange) is explaining the reality on the ground. I think it may have gone like this:

P – So I understand that these guys will stop at nothing to make sure they are first at the scene.

A – No, not really. There used to be a problem but its pretty well regulated now.

P – But I heard that they drive round the city like lunatics and practically fight over the corpses. That’s the angle we need for the film.

A – Afraid you are about twenty years out of date, mate. There used to be a problem but it’s sorted.

P – Bugger. We’ve sold the story already and the crew arrive tomorrow. What are we going to do? What if we follow these guys around, what will we see?

A – Just a bunch of really dedicated people trying to help out because there is no government sponsored service. It’s pretty impressive really.

P – What’s the use of that? We need some blood crazed brown people to look down on, that’s what our viewers want to see.

A – Well there are a couple of celebrities we could use. Movie actors.

P - Now we are getting somewhere. Are they cute?

A – Two men I am afraid but there is a teenage singer who we could interview, she is pretty hot.

P  - OK – let’s go for it, if I go back without at least fifteen minutes of blood and gore that’s me for the chop.

And thus another piece of narrow-minded racist drivel was born.

Journeymanpictures was desperate for a story that simply wasn’t there. The crew wanted to show Thailand as a backward barely civilized nation. The facts did not fit the story they had already written but it did not put them off.  Body retrieval is handled by a couple of well-run operations, staffed by motivated volunteers eager to do their bit for society and Buddhists are far less squeamish about death than westerners, it’s just part of the journey to another life. This documentary sought to portray these people as ignorant, thrill seeking opportunists. Unable to make the facts support their argument they lent on a professorial looking type to opine that they were “like children, unaware of the consequences” of what they were doing. The volunteers were described as “dedicated followers of traffic mayhem”, in spite of the fact that they were simply doing a job that people get paid for doing in the West. The programme had already plumbed the depths but as it drew to a welcome conclusion we were informed that the volunteers were simply seeking a heavenly reward. The choice of words was extraordinary. The narrator attempted to imply that the volunteers were trampling on the bodies of the victims with the phrase “the road to Nirvana is paved with the bodies of the dead”.  This is gutter journalism of the worst kind, we are invited to view Thailand through the eyes of someone who simply cannot understand why anyone could do anything without monetary reward. Their motives are assumed to be vile and base.

Am I recommending you avoid this film? Absolutely not. Someone got paid to turn out this garbage and if you can live with the narrow minded cultural blindness of the presentation it’s quite entertaining. I suggest you watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=6eWddjc7d3k

and then write to the producer and tell him he is a moron.