pressure mounts on Samak

Tonight, even Samak's closest allies have advised him to quit, in order to ease the political tension of the past few days.

Samak held a meeting with army chief Anupong Paojinda this afternoon, during which Anupong advised him to either resign or dissolve parliament. The leaders of the other five coalition parties agreed during a meeting this evening that they would request Samak's resignation as Prime Minister and PPP leader.

Anupong has repeatedly stressed that a military coup is not imminent, and the close relationship between him and Samak makes his reassurances credible. (Anupong now seems much more rational than his predecessor, Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who staged the 2006 coup against Thaksin.)

The PAD's occupation of Government House started on Tuesday. Samak initially demanded that the protesters evacuate immediately, and a large police presence built up in the area. Samak has shown surprising (and welcome) restraint in his responses to the PAD's "final war", refusing to sanction violent or military actions despite deliberate provocation from the PAD.

The PAD's core leaders have not yet been arrested. If Chamlong Srimuang (one of the PAD's most prominent leaders, alongside Sondhi Limthongkul) is detained, his ally, Pallop Pinmanee, has vowed to replace him. Pallop's reputation as a military assassin leaves little doubt that, if he did take over, the situation would become even more volatile.

Yesterday, the police retreated from Government House. Today, riot police returned and broke through the PAD's guards, in the morning and again in the afternoon, though on both occasions the police soon pulled back out again. This evening, many of the protesters marched to the police HQ, and were attacked with tear gas.

This Area Is Under Quarantine

A new documentary by Thai film-maker Thunska Pansittivorakul, This Area Is Under Quarantine, was screened at Makhampom Studio, Bangkok, last night. (Thunska's website is at thaiindie.com; all of his previous films were shown at a retrospective in April.) Before the premiere of this new feature-length documentary, there were screenings of his recent short films Action! (which premiered at the 5th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, and is currently showing as part of the 4th Project 6) and Middle-Earth (which premiered at the 11th Thai Short Film & Video Festival), and his music video Blinded Spot. Most of the photographs from Thunska's recent Life Show exhibition were also displayed, though some were missing. [Guess which ones!]

Thunska has always made highly provocative films, and This Area Is Under Quarantine is no exception. Its first half resembles his earlier films Life Show and Chemistry, with two gay men being interviewed about their past relationships. (They later have sex with each other, filmed in close-up with a constantly moving camera, recalling Thunska's film Sigh.)

One of the men mentions that he is a Muslim, which unexpectedly veers the discussion towards the notorious incident at Tak Bai in 2004 when eighty-five Muslim men suffocated while held captive by the Thai army. Video footage of the Tak Bai incident is included, and Thaksin Shinawatra, who was Thailand's Prime Minister at the time of the incident, is directly criticised in the film.

More contentiously, photographs of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, who were hanged in Iran in 2005, are also included, with the suggestion that they were hanged because they had consensual sex with each other. In fact, human rights organisations have since concluded that the two Iranians were hanged for their rape of a thirteen-year-old boy, and thus that their reputation as gay martyrs is inappropriate. [Though hanging anyone for any crime is, of course, abhorrent.]

There were a few technical glitches at last night's sold-out screening. The film will be shown again at the same venue on 1st September.

PAD protest continues

The PAD pledged that their occupation of Government House was a "final war", and that if Samak did not resign they would abandon their protests. They then announced that they would remain at Government House for three days.

Well, Samak has made it clear that he will not quit, and today is the third day of the occupation, but there are no signs that the PAD protesters will leave anytime soon. Arrest warrants have been issued for the PAD's leaders, and police have been negotiating with them since Tuesday, but this morning Samak announced that he was withdrawing the police from the area.

In the past few days, Samak has reacted with uncharacteristic restraint. Today's police retreat admirably avoids any potential for violent confrontation, though it also weakens the Prime Minister, who has no choice but to remain in a temporary office at army HQ while thousands of PAD supporters camp out around Government House.

6pm PAD deadline passes

The 6pm deadline for the PAD to disperse from Government House and five ministries passed a few minutes ago. Samak is currently giving a press conference, and has refused to resign. He stressed that the police will use "soft and gentle" tactics, not violence, to disperse the PAD.

Samak also reaffirmed his plan to amend the constitution. Safeguarding the 2007 constitution was one of the PAD's stated aims when they renewed their protests in May. [I'm certainly no fan of the military-drafted constitution, but it was approved in a national referendum. I don't like Samak, either, but he won the election last year. The PAD leaders have no such legitimacy: the mob which supports them amounts to only a few thousand people.]

The PAD call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, yet their policies ('New Politics') and their tactics (disruptive street protests, ignoring the judiciary and the elected parliament) are absolutely undemocratic.

PAD's "final war"? If only...

The People's Alliance for Democracy is currently staging its largest, most disruptive protest thus far, in what it calls a "final war" against Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's government. There has been a continuous PAD protest since May at Makawan Bridge, Ratchadamnern Nok, Bangkok, though today the protest spread to numerous state buildings.

PAD protesters are occupying Government House, and the Finance, Agriculture, Energy, Education, and Transport ministries. This morning, they invaded the offices of state-controlled television station NBT, forcing it off the air for several hours.

At 3pm this afternoon, Samak made a live TV statement, warning that his patience is running out. Interior Minister Kowit Wattana has issued an ultimatum to the PAD: dispurse all protests before 6pm tonight, or face a forced eviction by the police.

One of the PAD's core leaders, Sondhi Limthongkul, gave an interview to the Bangkok Post newspaper this morning, in which he irresponsibly goaded the army to launch a coup ("soldiers today are cowards") and self-righteously positioned himself as the protector of the monarchy ("If we don't do it, the monarchy might collapse").

Sondhi has pledged that today's ultra-protest will be the PAD's "final war", and that, if Samak does not resign today, the PAD's protests will cease. Let's hope he keeps his word, because the undemocratic PAD is by far the most divisive force in Thai politics. Samak has many shortcomings, but the best way to stabilise Thai politics is for the PAD to disband, not for Samak to resign.

Sticky & Sweet Tour

Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour began last night. Although the set-list inevitably concentrates on her latest album, Hard Candy, there's also a surprising amount of classic songs (significantly more than her previous Confessions Tour). The show is divided into four themed sections: 'pimp', 'old school', 'gypsy', and 'rave'. After Ray Of Light, she announced that she would take requests, and started to sing Express Yourself a cappella - but then she changed her mind: "I'm in charge. I choose the songs".

The full set-list is: Candy Shop, Beat Goes On, Human Nature, Vogue, Into The Groove, Heartbeat, Borderline, She's Not Me, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You, Spanish Lesson, Miles Away, La Isla Bonita, You Must Love Me, 4 Minutes, Like A Prayer, Ray Of Light, Hung Up, and Give It 2 Me.

PPP dissolution decision delayed

The Election Commission's decision regarding the potential dissolution of the PPP has been delayed until 2nd September. The EC had been deliberating ever since one of the PPP's deputy leaders, Yongyuth Tiyaphairat, was convicted of fraud by the EC, a conviction later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Under Thai law, if an executive member of a political party is convicted of electoral fraud, the Supreme Court is entitled to dissolve the party in question. (That explains Samak's on-again-off-again scheme to change the constitution, of course.) This scenario was played out last year when Thaksin's TRT was dissolved by the Constitutional Tribunal established by the leaders of the 2006 coup. After TRT was dissolved, its MPs formed the PPP as a replacement. The PPP then won the 2007 election.

If, as expected, the EC's announcement on 2nd September goes against the PPP, the party will be reincarnated yet again. It's an open secret that a new Puea Thai Party has already been formed, ready to rise like a desperate phoenix from the PPP's ashes. Thaksin himself, the PPP's puppet-master, is now in exile in London; he returned to Thailand earlier this year, though he fled to England last week when it became clear that he could not defeat the various corruption charges filed against him.

The Jewel Of Medina banned in Serbia

The Jewel Of Medina, the novel by Sherry Jones about Mohammed's child-bride Aisha, has been withdrawn from sale in Serbia. It had been published by Beobuk in Belgrade in a Serbian translation, though it has not yet been published in any other country following its cancellation by Random House.

Thaksin arrest warrant issued

A warrant has been issued by the Thai police for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, following his return to England. Thaksin and his wife are both currently under investigation by the Supreme Court, after Thaksin returned to Thailand to fight the charges against him.

Thaksin's bail conditions entitled him to leave the country if he sought prior permission, and he was authorised to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing. His wife, Potjaman, was found guilty of tax evasion last month, and released on bail. Presumably, that verdict was a signal that Thaksin would be likely to lose his own forthcoming court cases. Therefore, he did not return to Thailand from China as scheduled, and instead flew to London, issuing a statement to the effect that the charges against him were politically motivated and that he would not receive a fair trial.

His stated reasons for fleeing are hardly credible, considering that the PPP is in power and also bearing in mind that, when he returned in February, Thaksin announced that he was ready to defend himself in court.

nominations for Empire's Top 500

Empire magazine has launched a survey to find the 500 greatest films of all time. Voting is open until 5th September, and you can either vote online at empireonline.com/500 or by using the form printed in the magazine.

Flashback '76

The group exhibition Flashback '76 commemorates the 1976 Thammasat University massacre. The exhibition includes Manit Sriwanichpoom's photo series Died On 6th October 1976; Manit soaked autopsy photographs of the victims of the massacre in blood, and the red images reinforce the violence of the event.

The 1976 massacre was also the subject of Manit's Horror In Pink series, shown at From Message To Media; incredibly, despite photographic evidence to the contrary, Thai Prime Minister Samak claimed that only a single person died in the massacre.

Flashback '76, at the Pridi Banomyong Institute in Bangkok, opened on 2nd August, and will close on Saturday.

Halliwell's Film Guide 2008

This is the 23rd edition of Halliwell's Film Guide, now retitled Halliwell's Film Video & DVD Guide 2008 and edited by David Gritten. Gritten takes over from John Walker, who had edited the Guide since Leslie Halliwell's death in 1989.

Leslie Halliwell was famous for his dislike of modern cinema, refusing to give his maximum four stars to any film made after Bonnie & Clyde. His capsule reviews would damn many films with faint praise, and it's quite fun to look up your favourite films to read the criticisms which accompany even the highest-rated titles. The Seventh Seal, for instance, is a "minor classic", and Annie Hall was successful for "no good reason". Too often, a film's narrative structure is unfairly criticised; for example, Citizen Kane has "gaps in the narrative", Jaws is "slackly narrated", Dr Strangelove has an "untidy narrative", and so on.

In his stint as editor, John Walker rewrote some of the most acerbic reviews and revised many of the star ratings. At the last minute, he requested that his name be removed from this latest edition, hence the sticker bearing David Gritten's name covering Walker's.

Gritten has improved the Guide's layout, with blue text for each film title and a line between each entry. The star ratings are now much more generous than in Halliwell's day - perhaps too generous. The latest edition reviews more than 24,000 films, which is more than most other guides though less than the 27,000 in Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever. Videohound only includes films available on VHS or DVD, however, so while it does feature DTV titles missing from Halliwell's, it doesn't cover any titles which were released theatrically but not on video. For that reason, Halliwell's is still necessary.

The Jewel Of Medina cancelled

Publication of The Jewel Of Medina: A Novel, written by Sherry Jones, has been cancelled by Random House, due to fears of possible attacks by extremist Islamic groups. The novel is a fictionalised biography of Aisha, Mohammed's eleven-year-old bride. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal printed a quotation from the novel, describing Aisha's wedding night experience: "the pain of consummation soon melted away. Muhammad was so gentle. I hardly felt the scorpion's sting. To be in his arms, skin to skin, was the bliss I had longed for all my life". (Their conjugal relations were also the subject of an especially provocative Nekschot cartoon.) The prologue to The Jewel Of Medina is available online, and a Serbian translation of the book has been published by Beobuk in Belgrade.

Mohammed cartoons publisher cleared

The Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, Canada, has rejected a complaint by the Edmonton Council of Muslim Canadians against Ezra Levant, the former publisher of Western Standard magazine. A previous Commission investigation into Levant was dropped after Sayed Soharwardy withdrew a complaint against him. Western Standard published the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons on 13th February 2006, one of many magazines which reprinted the images.

Grand Theft Auto withdrawn from Thailand

The distributors of Grand Theft Auto have withdrawn all versions of the game from sale in Thailand, after a taxi driver was stabbed by a man who says the game inspired him.

Phalawat Chinno, a student, admitted murdering Khuan Phokaeng, saying he was motivated by a sequence in the game in which a taxi driver is also murdered. Phalawat stabbed Khuan more than ten times with a kitchen knife. It's not clear exactly which version of GTA (I-IV) he played, although there is a sequence in Grand Theft Auto II titled Taxi Drivers Must Die!; Grand Theft Auto IV had not yet been released in Thailand, and its release has now been cancelled.

Blaming media violence for real-life violence is an easy, knee-jerk response, but it doesn't address the social causes. It could be argued that GTA gave Phalawat the idea to select a taxi driver as his victim (rather than a postman, or a shopkeeper, for example), but the act of playing a game cannot turn someone into a murderer. Violent games can, in contrast, be cathartic, allowing us to release our natural violent feelings in a controlled situation, thus making us less violent in real life.

Violence has always been a part of human nature, and murders were committed long before video games were invented. Violence in the media is reflecting the violence which already exists in real life, not influencing it.

Just because a criminal uses a computer game as an excuse does not mean that the person is any less culpable, unless the person is either so young, or so mentally unbalanced, that they cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. Phalawat's mental state, personal morality, and socio-economic background are the real causes of this crime, not GTA.

Unspeak

Unspeak is a label coined by Steven Poole to describe loaded words which are often used in neutral senses. It's also the title of Poole's book on the same topic.

'Surgical strike', for example, is used in war reporting to describe a military attack in which only the specific target is destroyed, with no damage to civilians or surrounding infrastructure. 'Surgical strike' is unspeak because, although it is used in a descriptive sense, it also has ideological connotations. 'Surgical' suggests a fine degree of precision, just as a medical surgeon performs delicate surgical procedures. Furthermore, during medical surgery the patient is anaesthetised, thus 'surgical strike' implies painlessness. Finally, military action is linguistically equated with the removal of disease, thus giving it positive associations. By describing military operations as 'surgical attacks', politicians are communicating a subtle ideological message, which is unthinkingly repeated by journalists who adopt the same terminlogy in their war reporting.

Poole shows how so much political and military discourse utilises metaphors which have been chosen by spin doctors for their ideological implications, and, more worryingly, how these unspeak terms have pervasively entered conventional public discourse as standard terms. Kenneth Burke describes this process, when our selection of terminology limits our perceptions, as 'terministic screening', and Quentin Skinner refers to 'evaluative-descriptive terms', words which are employed objectively despite their argumentative origins.

Diary Of The Dead

Diary Of The Dead is the latest in George A Romero's zombie series. (The previous films are: Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, Day Of The Dead, and Land Of The Dead. The first two are notable for their social commentaries and for their then-unprecedented levels of on-screen gore.)

Like Cannibal Holocaust and The Blair Witch Project, Diary Of The Dead is a mockumentary comprised of purportedly recovered footage. As in those two earlier films, we are first introduced to the film-makers and their equipment (taking care to establish the multiple cameras, thus enabling the real film-maker to justify shot/reverse-shot editing). The same themes - that filming an event makes it more real, and that the camera viewfinder filters reality - are explored in all three films.

Diary Of The Dead's film-within-the-film is titled The Death Of Death; the film's real title, and Romero's name, do not apear until the end credits, though Romero does have a cameo role as a police officer (and there are also cameos by Quentino Tarantino and Wes Craven, as radio reporters).

Funny Games

The Austrian version of Michael Haneke's Funny Games was released in 1997. The film was intended as an endurance test for viewers, and Haneke has called it his only deliberate act of audience provocation. In the film, two articulate, charming, yet sadistic young men torture a bourgeois family. The scenario resembles Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, and Haneke returned to the theme with the more subtle Cache in 2006.

This year, Haneke remade Funny Games in Hollywood. The only differences are the language (English) and the cast (led by Naomi Watts and Tim Roth). The script has not been changed, and the same ideas are explored: the total emasculation of the husband/father, the sudden disruption of bourgeois complacency, and the breaking of the fourth wall to render the audience complicit in the action.

The soundtrack, camerawork, and editing are practically identical to the original Funny Games, to an even greater degree than Gus VanSant's Psycho remake. To such an extent, in fact, that the exercise becomes redundant - why don't American viewers simply watch the subtitled original version?

Watts and Roth can't quite hide their natural movie-star charismas, in contrast to the utterly un-self-conscious performances of the original actors (Susanne Lothar and Ulrich Muhe). Brady Corbet, as Peter, successfully adopts the mannerisms of Frank Giering, who originally played the character. Michael Pitt, playing Paul, is less chilling than Arno Frisch's original interpretation of the same role.

International Film Festival 2008

The 2008 International Film Festival, organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, opens on 8th August with Four Months Three Weeks & Two Days (which premiered in Thailand at the EU Film Festival last year). The Festival (chulafilmfest.multiply.com) runs until 25th August, with free admission to every film.