Bangkok Girl: documentary about the sex trade coming to CBC Newsworld

[ghostie]

This show is going to be on Newsworld this week. It looks interesting, IMHO.

http://www.cbc.ca/roughcuts/feature_151105.html

Tuesday November 15, 2005 at 10pm ET/PT

Bangkok Girl is a 'remarkably accomplished, beautifully photographed and intimate debut documentary that puts a human face on the devastating social issue that, sadly, is the fate of too many impoverished girls.'

<IMG SRC="http://www.cbc.ca/roughcuts/images/1bangkok4.JPG">

Producer/Director Jordan Clark enters a world with various levels of prostitution -- from basic bargirls, who merely pour you a drink, money for sex relationships, to hooking on both sides of the gender line.

The documentary provides a glimpse of Thailand's sex tourism told through the experiences of a 19-year-old bar girl named Pla. Working in the bars since the age of thirteen, Pla has managed to avoid selling her body for sex, a remarkable discovery, given her surroundings that sadly cannot last. En route to the film's startling conclusion, you are given a true understanding of why and how she ended up in her current environment and wonder if she will ever escape.

<IMG SRC="http://www.cbc.ca/roughcuts/images/bangkok1.JPG">

The introduction of 'falangs', or foreigners, to Thailand has forever changed their city, their economy, their lives, and their desires. This film is a daring and unabashed look at ourselves, through the eyes of one girl, in an honest, morally gripping story, which challenges the worldwide, accepted practice of sex tourism.

 

[Dulcinea]

Very interesting

btw, foreigners,as well as guava fruit are referred to as "Farang"

Interesting how CBC got that wrong.

http://www.into-asia.com/thai_language/farang.php

 

[Maury Beniowski]

Farang = Kon (khoon) Dtahng Bpra-Tayt (sic)

The use of Farang is not wrong, but the most common and accepted form in all of Thailand, from children to adults, even by Farangs themselves. Farang being derived from the word "foreigners" is pretty benign in itself. Khoon Dtahng Bpra-Tayt is a mouthful compared to Farang, and so is rarely used. You'd only hear perfectionists trot out the latter.

This is not unlike the Cantonese using Gwai-lo, instead of the gentler Sy-yaan or people from the West. It just rattles off the tongue quicker. Mandarins would pronounce it Gwee-lao.

 

[wolverine]

They name a place "Bangkok" and they wonder why it's such a sex haven?

 

[Herb_The_Perb]

Khoon Dtahng Bpra-Tayt is a mouthful compared to Farang, and so is rarely used.

Khoon Dtahng sounds remarkably like poontang, doesn't it?