REFLECTION ON THAI SOCIETY PRESENTED IN CONTEMPORARY THAI FILMS OF SUPHANNAHONG NATIONNAL FILM AWARDS OF THE YEAR 2007-2016

Abstract

The study on the topic of “Reflection on Thai Society Presented in Contemporary Thai Films of Suphannahong National Film Awards of the Year 2007-2016” aimed to study how the contemporary Thai films of Suphannahong National Film Awards of the year 2007-2016 reflected Thai society by analyzing the narrative strategies of the films. This study is a qualitative research by choosing nine contemporary Thai films of Suphannahong National Film Awards of the year 2007-2016.

The study results, it was found that nine contemporary Thai films reflected Thai society in three main issues as follows; (1) social issues, such as family, morality, values of the rural people, sexual deviance, social stratification, Thai labor and competition at work of Thai people, health, sanitation and disease, as well as the reflection on the influence of Buddhism on Thai society; (2) economic issues, such as the reflection of the lives of Thai people affected by a capitalist economy and consumerism; (3) political issues, such as the reflection of Thai political history in terms of political change in the past and the movement of change in Thai politics in the contemporary era.

For the study on narrative strategies of the films, the study results indicated that the contemporary Thai films of Suphannahong National Film Awards of the year 2007-2016 had a continuity of story which can be divided into two types, which were chronology and  non- narrative chronology. For most of the endings, the characters often suffered sadness and the story usually ended without a clear resolution. In addition, the  themes that the films aimed to communicate to the audience mostly represented the theme of dimensions of love and human relationships regarding social, economic and political aspects. Moreover, for the character traits, the studied films presented the characters in two types, which were typed characters and well-rounded characters. Furthermore, most of the scenes in the films were in natural environments and scenes in artificial setting were designed according to the period of the story in the film. For the point of view in storytelling, it was found that the films that won the Best Film Award of Suphannahong National Film Awards of the year 2007-2016 usually had an omniscient point of view and mostly told the story from the first person point of view.