artanis_neravar said:
Shadow Geo said:
Watched the movie. Loved the movie. Just my opinion, I'm sure everyone has one too. Just don't be so quick to judge people!
Agreed, I loved this movie and I don't see what was so bad about everything he described. But then again I am one of those people who goes to a movie for enjoyment and does not need every single movie to be something new and different if it makes me laugh it is a good movie.
Well, you have to understand that Bob is a massive left winger, who doesn't get that the other 50% of the population doesn't agree with him on certain political issues, like the complete and total acceptance of homosexuals/transgenders and other things. He's basically taking an "OMG Grow up" rant because of the realization that massive numbers of people disagree with him, and enough of them to make scenes like the one he is talking about work. He'd like to call it an "epic fail for humanity" without realizing that we're dealing with a big issue, and just as many people on the other side as would agree with him.
Likewise, his politics are largely offended by the idea of using a foreign country/people/culture as the butt of a joke, even when it might be deserved, and be making some valid points. Putting the blame on us for noticing and making a movie about it for some laughs, rather than on a country that could probably be doing better, and is trying to grow up, but not quite getting there. Making fun of nations like Thailand is currently similar to how people used to make fun of Japan, back when Japan was aping the US badly, and "they're really big in Japan" was the height of misdirected humorous put downs, because everyone knew EXACTLY why that was funny. Japan changed, started turning out a solid product, and now gets more respect, and not just from nerds.
To be honest Thailand could have been used interchangably with a lot of differant nations, but right now it's known to be more backwards than most. Bangkok occasionally being referred to as "The Cesspool Of the Orient" largely because it's been a major hub for drugs, slavery, the child sex trade, and other things, while Bangkok has been working to turn it's reputation around, and to be fair there are many places in the Orient that are just as bad especially nowadays, it still has a reputation that sticks to it, and the country as a whole.
Oh yes and this is to say nothing of the infamous Thai pirates. Do a search for "Thai Pirates" and you'll get plenty of hits, but here is a sample link telling only part of the story:
http://vietka.com/Vietnamese_Boat_People/HorribleStatistics.htm
The bottom line is that Thailand is known to be home to a lot of ruthless thugs, who would head out and terrorize/rape/rob/kill people from other asian countries, and any tourist vessels or undefended merchant traffic they could get to. The kind of piracy people are just now becoming aware of due to the stuff largely around Africa.
They heydey of Thai piracy in the modern era was admittedly around the 1980s as you can tell from a lot of the data you'll find on a search. The problem has never gone away, but has notably decreased by all reports.
In short, Thailand is one of those nations that has everything from huge, modern cities, to people living in abject poverty, and much the same way they did during The Middle Ages. You have tourist traps, and areas where armed thugs with assault rifles board boats looking to cause mayhem. It's quite the enviroment. Someone like Bob is going to look at only the huge, modern cities, and not other parts of the countries. Someone who is anti-asian is going to look only at the nastiest parts of the country. The rest of us, are going to view it as a more balanced whole, and the results are't entirely flattering, but also not akin to saying it's a Charlie Chan rerun with everyone living knee deep in rice paddies either.
Thailand right now is one of those areas that goes to great length to protect and patrol it's more touristy areas, so they can show them to the rest of the world. Basically it's a pretty safe tourist destination, with enough of a barbaric undercurrent and hint of danger to attract a bunch of "Bros" like the guys from The Hangover wanting to do something that seems exciting and adventerous, but really isn't to the extent they would like others to believe. A movie like "The Handover" of course involves them hitting some of the more extreme things a person could find, all at once, but at the same time nothing extreme enough to ruin the movie's rating or end with them all being cut to ribbons in an alleyway somewhere.
Basically knowing that you had pirates murdering hundreds of thousands out of Thailand (and from nations around the area admittedly) 30 years ago makes it seem dangerous, especially seeing as there is still some of that around, but they heyday of that has since passed, and while it's still a crime center for all the things I mentioned, the crime is also a bit lower key at least in how it operates, especially around tourists, because everyone wants the tourists. Even the guys running the brothels realize that if they kill tourists for being obnoxious too often, then nobody is going to come into their business, leads leads to a lot of very ruthless people being fairly polite to those with money to spend.
I'm rambling, but the point is that someone like Bob probably doesn't get the situation. Indeed I'd venture a guess he had never even heard of the piracy in the region for example, until I just mentioned it (assuming he actualy read this). He simply sees a foreign culture being used for the butt of a few jokes, and it angers his inner liberal. It's no worse than the occasional joke being made at the expense of the USA, which does happen, in American movies no less.
