ADMIN EL:
First off, if you don’t like Slap/Kiss-Raeng and just want to hate on something, please DON’T READ THIS! This post is meant to create a discussion about two lakorns and the backlash due to a particular scene. As I said, if you disagree or dislike this, then stop watching/reading this. YOU, as the viewer, have the power in your hand to click stop or exit out of this post.
If you don’t want spoilers, then go away… I’m giving you a chance . . . 1, 2, 3
Let me start with this one statement: NEITHER I NOR MY FELLOW ADMINS ARE PRO-RAPE!! Let’s make that clear first because it seems that some people understood me wrong due to my past comments. Yes, I love RAENG lakorns! My favorite lakorns of all time are Sawan Biang and Jam Loey Ruk which, most of you know, have R-Scenes. For some cultural reason, Thailand portrays R-Scenes as something that connects Pra’ek and Nang’ek <NOT SAYING THIS IS OK, but I understand and still enjoy the lakorn because… <IT’S A DAMN LAKORN!>
Now, times have changed, our society has changed and so our perspectives. Keep in mind that slavery and segregation were once accepted, but slavery was abolished and segregation… well, we are still having SOME issues there, however we have come a long way. With that said, let’s move to the reason that led me to writing this. The backlash MJB (Mia Jam Bpen) is receiving after that R-Scene where it SEEMS that Nang’ek is raped and later Pra’ek is acting as a total Tohmon! (This is a new word Admins and Friends will be adding to LGuange as a synonym for “The top Moron/Asshole”).
I said I was not going to watch the ep until Subber Neko gets done with ep 10, but I had to watch that scene and… OH, MY DEAR LORD! WHAT A TOHMON HE IS!!!! I yelled at my screen, I wanted to kick him more than Bow kicks Toh in WWH (Wong Wieng Huajai). My heart hurt, and NOT in the way that I like! After watching that scene, I totally understood ALL the backlash it received and why other lakorns didn’t cause the same reaction when some showed R-Scenes as well in the past months. That is not the way R-Victims should be treated at all!
And that Victim blaming takes me to WWH, in which you can see in the first eps, how the Nang’ek has to keep quiet about the “rape” (cuz she was not) to avoid damaging her family’s reputation. Let me say this once again, <I CAN DEAL WITH IT CUZ I KNOW IT’S JUST A LAKORN!> I know that that old stigma of victim blaming has to go away as well as the romanticizing of rape. If you have watched the old version of WWH, you must know there’s also a R-Scene in there and that in the new version that Subber Thippy is working on, there might be one too.
My questions now are… WILL/SHOULD Wong Wien Huajai RECEIVE THE SAME BACKLASH IF IT KEEPS THE R-SCENE? What if WWH keeps the R-Scene and it doesn’t get backlash like MJB? Could that mean that Thai society were just mad at the Tohmon’s reaction of disgust towards the Nang’ek and not about the rape?
Please, tell me what you think on the comments on this blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Discord (spoilers tag).
Adding to this topic, some years ago Clarity shared on LG private group about Ch3 self-censorship on lakorns after the warning from minister. Admins of Lakorn Galaxy asked for her permission to add it next.
ADMIN EL
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*Just my 2 cents*
by Clarity
About El’s post… Firstly, I would like to stress that both lakorns are produced by the same company. Yes, D One (production who produced MJB) is the sister company of Kantana Group which produce WWH. I can see the difference between that because they got a different producer who handle the lakorn. I love Mr. D’s work better since he handled Ngao Boon and Wong Wien Huajai which the acting of casts are natural. As for MJB, most of the characters are overreacting, and they are forced (well, I can see through their acting). I was surprised as I know Ch3 tends to self-censor sweet kisses and very intimate scenes. How would they let such of this scene air? I know some people are just like Tohmon in real life, but the way they depicted it it’s such a shrew.
LG is an interesting place that share a lot of good info about lakorns. So I decided to share back something after I found a post that was interesting. Well, why certain channels did not air those deep kissing scenes? If referred to the latest lakorn it will be Trabab See Chompoo when Peat passionately kissed his wife, Kiew. Okay, let me enlighten you that the channel did receive warnings/ban from Thailand Ministry of Culture regarding this issue. I think it was back then in 2008 when some international fans regarded the culture in Thailand is that the hero can rape the girl that he love, or the man rape a woman to teach them a lesson or either executing the revenge. So this hanky panky issue began during Sawan Biang and later on got a few lakorns of unwilling rape scenes and deep kisses, and they support it with the statistics of rapes that happened in Thailand. Well, to make the matter worse a lakorn titled Nuer Mek 2 got pulled off because the story was inappropriate (political issues). The channel couldn’t risk that anymore, so they fully enforce it in 2011 (if I am not mistaken). However, a cable channel got fined 2 years back because of excessive violent and intimate scenes. What do you think?
Lakornian Clarity
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P. S. Now, isn’t it weird that Ch3 got a warning and censorship and other channels didn’t? What are your thoughts on this? Not all lakorns are about romanticizing R-Scenes, there’s one Lakorn in particular that comes to my mind that also talks about rape but gives it a different angle. In this one the victim takes the rapist to court, so you might want to watch it: Pik Marn (Devil’s Wings) -Admin DAO
MIA JAM BPEN 2021 — MIA JAM BPEN 2001
Wong Wien HuaJai 2021 — Wong Wien HuaJai 2009
SAWAN BIANG — JAM LOEY RUK
PIK MARN
LGuange (Admins and Friends vocabulary)
You made some valid points and trust me I was super pissed off at Tohmon characters too. I’m trying to think of this in a very open mind and trying to put myself in the characters shoe.
I feel like Tohmon couldn’t accept what happened to Yadfah(Tawan) because he knows it is his fault to begin with. To my understanding, MJB received many backlash because of Tohmon characters, perhaps he could of convey his emotions better, for a lack of better word “comfort/caring” instead of giving the cold hearted comfort. We don’t know how Tohmon actually feel inside, we see his actions (and yes some would argue that action speak louder than words) but have we all not been in situation where we just cannot express our feelings into words and take out our anger through our actions? I am not justifying Tohmon actions, I am trying to understand his actions. I think we all can see how much he was hurt and the pain he felt to see Tawan in that situation. I feel like him not wanting to hear what happened to Tawan or ask Tawan it’s because he’s not ready to hear it, doesn’t necessarily means he feel disgusted of her.
As for the other characters treating a rape victim that way, I absolutely agreed that rape victim should not be treated like that. But have we think about how maybe that is how society view some rape victim? I see MJB as a learning, when we see something that make us upset or mad we voice our anger right, and maybe that is the kind of response we need from the audience. When we see something that is upsetting and making us feel uncomfortable, we need to be the voice for victims. We need to realized that there are people who blame rape victim who don’t sympathize with rape victims, and no matter what they will find a way to put the blame on the victim. If you’re asking for my personal opinion, I think MJB touch on a very sensitive topic that addresses some of the real things people feel toward victim. Is it right? Absolutely not. But is that the reality? Sadly yes. I would hope that people would stand up for people and not only just in lakorn.
I have only watched the old version of WWH and gah, I hate it. They dragged it so much and I just ended up skimming through. It is never okay to threatened someone with a clip or lied to someone about a rape clip. This goes back to what I said, that is the reality sometime, people lied to their advantage to use other people. Will WWH get the same backlash? It is hard to say. I always have the feelings that CH7 never get much backlashed from their scenes.
I have always feel like CH3 censored a lot of romance and intimate scenes. But then again I also feel like it is always CH3 that get the most backlashed from their lakorn. And why is that?
Side note:
I appreciate you sharing your opinion and thank you for bringing awareness to us all.
B.yes of course..i love this lakorn!!
Where do i start. First of all thank you for your opinion i agree with you that sometimes lakorns are just lakorns and you can choose to watch or not.
However I can see why people are upset then Rape is a serious topic which affects a lot of women this scene can be triggering for some people. In MJB Tohmon reaction is actually realistic. Most of the time man and women can not accept the fact that somebody they know and love could be a rape victim. In the most case men react like Tohmon because they fell helpless , unmanly because they could not protect the female. I am sure there is a scientific term for it.
With that being said, is still disgusting how everyone is so quick to blame the victim.
In my opinion WWH is absolute a horrible lakorn, not just because of the alleged rape but also because of the behavior of her whole family. They have no problem sending her off to live with her “perpetrator”, that they do not know!!! because it is better than being a misters. And everybody agrees with it, except the mom in the at the beginning. And Tos playing the good guy, but who has no problem in hurting her with the excuse that he does it for his sister. Who lied to married somebody that did not want her. Who by the way has no problem in going fighting other girls who she things are messing with her husband. But as soon as her husband wants to leave her or her brother is visiting she as all kinds of heard attacks.
Even though Tos knows his sister lied, instead of correct her mistake he goes and kidnaps the other guy just that he can married the girl. And her parents are like, see we did good know you can married the guy who “drugged and rape you” and we do not have to be ashamed of you becoming a misters. And everybody is like yeee we are so happy. The whole time im watching this lakorn and i am like, wait what ist Happening. smh I just could not watch it.
Yes I will continue because of the reasons you provided above re this type of Lakorn. However, the reason I feel so strongly about the scene in in this particular show is because the preceding episodes were taking me in a different direction. I had actually laughed in many of the them and saw the script as clever in using so many of the same tropes used in lakorns…..I mean the show was almost following the lakorn being watched by the characters who were avid fans of lakorns. I thought this was clever as this lakorn was to me a wonderful warm hearted show. Then they did this. I felt really let down as this was a “trope” that I didn’t think would be included.
The part that I do always feel almost guilty about accepting in these Thai shows as the rape between the leads becomes an element of their love story. Rape occurs in every culture, and i know in my part of the planet, it is under reported. It occurs between married couples. BUT it is seen as violence !!! Not something that is an element of a wonderful love story. I often do wonder how young Thai girls perceive this as they watch these romances.
B. I’m watching with a lots of “Skip, skip, skip” just because I need to end this nightmare and not have it in my list anymore ????
I agree deeply and passionately that the reaction by all to the FL’s rape in MJ was disgusting. But particularly revolting was the ML’s cruel and inhuman response to the FL. He dragged her to the scene of her kidnapping, chained her–I just can’t believe the writers and directors of this lakorn scripted it like that. The ML may have felt guilty for not protecting the ML, I can understand that, but his guilt does not justify his barbaric reactions. And I kept waiting for the FL to fight back.
Now let me say a few things about a 2022 Lakorn I just completed, Ching Nang. There is so much wrong about this Lakorn but I will mention only a portion of all of it. Again, a ML rapes the woman he is supposedly deeply in love with, driven by anger and jealousy that she married his brother. He takes no responsibility for driving her away from him in order for her to return to care for his ailing father. Nor does he or the rest of the family give her a choice to do this knowing full well she loves the ML. And worse yet, the ML drives her away , by professing love for another woman, offering to live as a threesome, humiliating the FL in various ways, including kissing the other woman in front of the FL to prove his point. Then upon the heartbroken FL’s return to the family home one of the brothers pressures her in to marrying him in order to make the father happy. This was the 2nd time she felt indebted to marry. The lst time was to the sickly brother who the FL was groomed by the parents to caretake. I had a pit in my stomach the whole time I watched this Lakorn waiting for the FL to develop some backbone. But she never did. Instead because the father adopted her and put her through nursing school she accepted it as a debt she needed to repay at the expense of her own happiness. I am on the last episode of this Lakorn and all I have seen is that the FL never expresses outrage at the ML for the rape but smilingly welcomes him back the to the family home with tenderness and love. I would like to know what the writers and directors minds are like. Is this an example of Thai culture. I love Thailand, the language, the country, the beautiful traditions, the food, etc. but the beliefs that these types of Lakorns convey is just too revolting to stomach. It isn’t even the rapes that distress me. It is the way in which women are portrayed as accepting of them and the domineering/abusive family behaviors foisted on them with no character development of the FLs in to confident, strong women who know how to fight back. Ughhh, Ching Nang is another Lakorn like this that has left a bad taste in my mouth. There is so much more bad about this Lakorn that I haven’t mentioned. Please writers, create stories around women who refuse to take abuse in any form and men who sufficiently suffer when they perpetuate the abuse!!!
Thank you so much for your comment. I haven’t watched that lakorn, but as you said, it’s sadly typical on many lakorns. There’s something about the rap3 thing, we had a friend of us give her 2 cents about that, I’ll to look for that information and share it here on social media.