A chat with - Blogger Thit San Khant - Myanmar's stagnating Movie Industry

A chat with - Blogger Thit San Khant - Myanmar's stagnating Movie Industry
Published 22 July 2019
Kywe Wa Dana Tun Eleven Myanmar Eleven Media Group Yangon

"It will be just like Tony Stark's (Ironman) snap. Doctor Strange foresaw only one future out millions that this could happen. When the time comes, we have to be ready for it. It will be an extremely rare but hugely momentous opportunity."

 

 

A movie fanatic, an avid reader and a self-made success story, one of the well known faces behind Channel Myanmar, arguably Myanmar's best and largest movie translation and subtitling website for foreign films, Thit San Khant wishes for the current situation of the local movie industry to improve.

The author of the article had a chance to sit down with Thit San Khant for a brief interview on what his views of the current state of the industry for both the audience and the movie makers.

Upon my question, Thit San Khant breaks down the most popular types of movies that were requested of Channel Myanmar.

"I can simply say that most enjoy 18+ films. Current hot movies like blockbuster flicks are also popular but they come behind Drama series. And when I say 18+, I'm talking about mature subject themed movies. Even in that category, there are a lot of subsections. Of course most prefer them to be good in all aspects but most like a gripping, emotional story. Some have their favorite actors and actresses so they will pick one according to that," said Thit San Khant.

He goes onto further explain why such topic matter earns the interest of so many for a local audience that rely on subtitles to understand the films.

"In Myanmar's current movie industry, it is a familiar story you hear everywhere. They follow the trend of what's hot. For the longest time, the trend has been to make comedy films. But the nature of the comedy essentially boils down to slapstick. All they'd do is cast the biggest stars they can afford and they would bumble and slapstick their way through the whole movie. It is not possible that such heavy adult-oriented movies will be made.

You have to know that a large portion of the audience for Myanmar-made films are those of lower income classes. When they go to watch a movie, they most of the time are not looking for thought provoking content but laughter and joy to forget their woes. They don't want anything weighing more on their minds, they already have enough as it is. There are those that call those films "Pawkars" (silly or foolish movies). They are right in the sense that most of those films will not leave anything with the audience after they exit the theatre. There are no messages, lessons or thoughts that can incite intrigue from the movie goer. On the other hand, for the rest; they'd prefer to just have a quick laugh about it and be done with it," says Thit San Khant, going on to say that this dichotomy had served on a whole to "cheapen" the plots of Myanmar movies nowadays.”

 

"It is almost to the point of disrespecting the audience. Every time it is the same old sequence of plots; male and female protagonists will bump into each other, they will argue in like maybe a school canteen, their friends will join in on the fight and then essentially will fall in love. But the parents of the girl will try to marry her off to a sleazy rich, businessman but the unwilling girl chooses to elope with the male protagonist. Then the parents of both families get into argument, a brawl perhaps, and most often than not - their 'Longyi' or 'Htamain' will fall off in the scuffle. Men's private parts will get kicked aplenty. You know - the same kind of puerile, low standard humor every single time. And some movie goers know this but still watches them anyway because they love this X actor or Y actress. The producers keep making bank on this again and again and again...." claimed an exasperated Thit San Khant.

Movie producers are much too afraid of not making a profit from their movies thus they follow what has already been tried and true. 

"Whatever happens, it's okay as long as they can make a profit."

Floundering flicks

Due to the stagnant state of Myanmar's film market, growing disappointment means more and more dejected fans are turning towards foreign made films. There are so many to choose from after all; hollywood, Bollywood and so on. There are also now many services that seek to provide both Myanmar and Foreign movies, series and others through phones and computers. But according to Thit San Khant, these services aren't doing so well.

"A lot of people in Myanmar still look at whether something is pricey or not. So they prefer free stuff. There are now plenty of services that bring convenience of watching movies through their phones or whatever but these services have to worry about getting copyright licenses and other legal requirements. And these things don't happen very quickly so they are always behind while the audience just have to watch something and be finished. The traffic to our website hasn't dropped, the number of requests to translate this movie or that series hasn't gone down at all. There have also been cases where people would also be subscribed to those services and yet still visit Channel Myanmar to see (again) something that they've just seen recently," said Thit San Khant. 

While that certainly is a multifaceted problem, part of the reason behind such stagnation is due to the archaic and protective nature of Myanmar's film industry authorities.

"I've been around in many countries; Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines and so on. I've always made it a point to go and watch movie wherever I go. What I noticed was that they care for their local audience. For example, Thailand. The system in the cinemas is that if an international hit film were to be shown, it will be shown in its original audio once. Then there will be another time where it will be shown with Thai language dub and then the final time with original audio but with Thai subtitles. So it really makes it so that the audience can always better understand what they will be watching. It is also a lot more friendly to those that are weak in foreign languages like English or Chinese. There are also audience members that are illiterate or hard of hearing. It is all very friendly towards the consumer. The effect of the decision in the past was that, the rate of local films dropped significantly because all of a sudden, the audience have a lot of choices to choose from. They will always go and see the movie that looks, sounds and is directed better; meaning that any local films that weren't up to standard will get completely ignored. And so movie producers there were forced to up their game. They have to make movies that are better or at least at the standard of international ones. For example, the movie Pee Mak. It is a Thai-made movie that not only did extremely well in Asia but also all the way over to Europe! You can see that now in a lot of other countries; Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and so on. They are also making really good movies now. It's not like it was because movies that were deemed 'low-quality' were banned. It was because they gave the consumers options that they are now where they are now. From directors that have to maybe learn new techniques of direction to talents that undergo more training to perform better and more complex roles, the entire industry improved."

He talked about his past experience in trying to do what he can to uplift the industry here in Myanmar.

"When I got back to Myanmar, I went around pulling in contacts from the movie and cinema industries.What I offered was all free of charge; the translators, the services and everything else. And at first, they were extremely keen on it. But their tone changed when they called me back to say that what I offered was something banned by the Myanmar Motion Picture Organisation."

Why the protectionist ban?

He delve further into details why it is banned so - making this issue not a matter of will to improve but a decree from above. 

"I was told this was actually attempted before by a cinema and on the first day of the showing, a warning letter came straight to them with the threat of further, severe actions. So it is not because everyone likes the current status quo but rather forcefully kept in it," said Thit San Khant.

He said he even considered and pitched a campaign idea that the public can get in on, hoping to push the agenda all the way into the parliaments. But experienced veterans in the industry counseled him that it can be attempted but the powers-that-be will be obstinate and resolute in keeping the ban alive, with some good reasons.

"It is because on the one hand, the cinema people and the consumers will definitely see large benefits but for the producers? it spells doom. They will lose their mainstream way of making money. Over a short term, it might even be that they will be earning less than half of what they are getting now. They will have to take a longer amount of time to shoot the movies. And people may think this is not all that important but if this were ever to happen, it will be a grand-scale decision that will affect the lives of so many. But I can guarantee you that it will be a decision that will launch Myanmar into its former glory days of making quality movies and so much more.

Think about it. Everybody will be affected in the industry. From producers to the lighting guy or girl. It can be said that they are earning mainly through shooting quantity 'Pawkar'(s). Of course it will one day become a field of work where - a day on the field would earn you Lakhs instead of mere two to three thousand Kyats. It is the simple 'Quality over Quantity' logic. When the bulk goes away, what remins will be the precious core - the spirit of movie making. So professionals in that field have to want to accept that change and brace for it. Some of the directors that are making cash-grab movies used to make such creative and enticing movies. But now they have to listen to the producers talking about money. With their skills and past experiences as well as enough funding, those directors can definitely make international standard films," said Thit San Khant.

Right now, he says that for such a major international-centric trend to happen is less than one percent for years to come, especially considering how powerfully connected some of the shot-callers in the motion picture authorities are, comparing it to an iconic scene in Marvel produced Avengers:Endgame.

"It will be just like Tony Stark's (Ironman) snap. Doctor Strange foresaw only one future out millions that this could happen. When the time comes, we have to be ready for it. It will be an extremely rare but hugely momentous opportunity,"" said Thit San Khant.

For now

Until the time comes, he will keep trying to improve his own personal value as an ardent movie lover and critic as well as uplifting the Channel Myanmar Team. They are now recruiting more and more people into their team; translators, encoders and more that will improve the quality of the movies they touch for the Myanmar audience. 

Thit San Khant claims that the services they provide now, while not considered piracy as they do not host the videos they edit, it might one day infringe when Myanmar's lawmakers finally passes stricter rules about Copyright and Intellectual Properties. They seek to become a proper robust organization by then.