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Thai festival pulls 'sensitive' child prostitution film
2008-09-23
BANGKOK (AFP) - A Japanese film dealing with child prostitution and organ trafficking in Thailand has been pulled from the sixth Bangkok International Film Festival, organisers said Tuesday. "Children of the Dark," a film by acclaimed director Junji Sakamoto, is the fictitious tale of two Japanese people, a journalist and an aid worker, trying to save children from sex slavery and organ harvesting in Thailand. Although the movie was initially picked for its artistic merits, festival organisers backed out just days before the event began Tuesday. "As a filmmaker myself, I found the film was interesting and very, very well made," said the festival's artistic director, Yongyoot Thongkongtoon. "(However), I'm not really sure the audience will get the information from the film correctly and it could cause problems." Festival director Jareuk Kaljareuk said the filmmakers also did not have permission from the national film board to shoot the movie, and labelled the subject matter "a little sensitive." In its place, the festival will screen "Where the Miracle Happens," a melodrama written by and starring Thai Princess Ubolratana. The film has already made the rounds in Thai cinemas. Sakamoto's studio did not return messages seeking comment. Last year, the festival pulled the Academy Award-nominated animated film "Persepolis" following a request from the Iranian Embassy in Bangkok. The event, which organisers once hoped would rival Busan festival in South Korea, has steadily been losing funding -- and sparkle. In 2006, Oliver Stone, Willem Dafoe and Catherine Deneuve trod the red carpet. This year, the festival boasts no big international names, but has a strong showing of Thai films. It opened Tuesday with the Asian premiere of Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" -- one of 78 films to be screened during the festival, which ends September 30. The festival is still reeling from the arrest last year of a Los Angeles-based couple who allegedly paid 1.7 million dollars in bribes to a Thai government official for the right to manage the 2003 event.
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