"James Bond Island", in Phang Nga Bay, featured in The Man with the Golden Gun.
This is a list of foreign films shot in Thailand. See also: List of Thai films
Dozens of foreign films have been shot in Thailand, with the kingdom either playing itself or standing in for a neighboring country, such as Vietnam or Cambodia.
The availability of elephants, exotic jungle and beach settings, relatively low production costs, and a mature domestic film industry that provides a legion of experienced crew members, have made Thailand an attractive location for many Hollywood films and other foreign productions.
In addition to providing work for Thai film crews and extras (including the Royal Thai Army), films that use Thailand as a location help Thailand promote itself as a tourist destination. As a result, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is keenly interested in attracting production companies to make films in the Kingdom.
Film makers have been criticized for damaging the Thai environment. The island used to depict the villain's hideout in The Man with the Golden Gun is now a major draw for tourism operators in Phuket's Phang Nga Bay. Environmentalists also protested the filming of The Beach, in which the film crew made alterations to Maya Bay that were viewed as damaging.
Hollywood has played an important role in the development of Thailand's film industry. One of the first feature films made in Thailand, 1923's Miss Suwanna of Siam, was a Hollywood co-production, made with the royal assistance of King Vajiravudh, who gave the production free use of his 52 automobiles, 600 horses, use of the Royal Thai Navy, the Grand Palace, the railways, the rice mills, rice fields, coconut groves, canals and elephants.[citation needed]
In recent years, even the Bollywood film industry has chosen Thailand as location.
In 2018, 714 foreign productions—documentaries, TV dramas, series, advertising, short films, and feature films—were shot in Thailand. In the first six months of 2019, 410 productions were shot in Thailand contributing 3.5 billion baht to the economy according to the Thailand Film Office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).[1]
Incentives
At the 69th Cannes Film Festival in 2016 Thailand introduced a cash rebate policy for foreign films shot in Thailand. It took effect in January 2017. The program grants a 15% tax rebate for foreign film productions that spend more than 50 million baht. Incentives increase by 2% for films that promote Thai tourism and another 3% for hiring key Thai personnel on set. Filmed advertisements are not eligible for the program.[1]
List of foreign films shot in Thailand
1920s–1970s
Nangsao Suwan (Suvarna of Siam) (1922-US): Directed by Henry MacRae. A love story with a Thai cast. The film has been lost; only a few stills survive.[2]
The Big Boss (1971): Chinese American martial artist and Jeet Kune Do founder Bruce Lee portrays Cheng Chao-An, a young fighter from Guangdong who emigrates to Thailand to be with his expatriate family and finds a job working in an ice factory; it soon turns out that the factory is a disguised drug operation, and Cheng soon finds himself having to fight for his life. After the original 1971 premiere, Hong Kong censors demanded that some of the footage be trimmed, including graphic violence, and an entire sequence in which Cheng visits a whorehouse and makes love to a Thai prostitute (featuring the only nude scene in Lee's career). The missing footage is rumoured to still exist.
Air America (1990): Mae Hong Son Province in northern Thailand stands in for Secret War-era Laos. The film later attracted tourism to the region and was featured on the cover of Conde Nast Traveller in May 1993.
Cutthroat Island (1995): Renny Harlin's swashbuckler was filmed on location in Maya Bay, which would later be used for The Beach.
Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997): Tony Jaa worked as a stunt double and went on to become a major Thai action star. Filming was in historic old Ayutthaya, where a minor stir was caused when scantily clad foreign women were filmed dancing on top of some sacred ruins. Mortal Kombat (1995) also was made in Thailand, around Sukhothai historical park. The opening and closing scenes in Mortal Kombat are also filmed in Ayutthaya.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997): Another Bond film and another Bond. Michelle Yeoh co-stars, as Bangkok stands in for Ho Chi Minh City. Scaramanga's island is seen, as Phang Nga Bay substitutes for Halong Bay, Vietnam. Production crew originally were destined to film in Vietnam but were denied entry. Thailand was chosen as an alternate location.
Brokedown Palace (1999): Clair Danes and Kate Beckinsale are arrested for smuggling while visiting Thailand. It was partly shot in Bangkok and the Bangkok airport.
Bangkok Dangerous (1999): Directed by Oxide and Danny Pang. A Thai hit-man story by Hong Kong directors.[2]
2000–2003
The Beach (2000-US): Environmentalists protested the film because the production crew altered the beach of Ko Phi Phi Leh. A 2006 court ruling held that 20th Century Fox was among the parties responsible for damages.[3]
2046: Wong Kar-wai's follow-up to In the Mood for Love was filmed partially in Bangkok, and the film underwent post-production processing at Bangkok's Kantana Group labs, where the director made last-minute edits to the film before delivering it late to the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
Two Brothers: This family-friendly story about two tigers had some scenes made in Samut Prakan Province, at a tourist site called Mueang Boran (Ancient City), which has scaled-down replicas of many of Thailand's important structures. The tigers used in the film were from the Si Racha Tiger Zoo near Pattaya. The film was set in neighboring Cambodia, and many locations were used there was well.
Stealth (2005): Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, and Josh Lucas portray high-tech US Navy aviators. Rest and relaxation scenes are set in Thailand and were filmed on The Beach island, Ko Phi Phi Leh. Neighboring Myanmar is the setting for a missile target, but those scenes were filmed in Australia.
Journey from the Fall: Unable to make his film at home, Vietnamese director Ham Tran came to Thailand to make his drama about Vietnam's re-education camps and the experience of boat people.
Croc (2007): This Thai Occidental Productions movie about a large man-eating crocodile, was filmed in Thailand in 2006. Michael Madsen, who plays a crocodile hunter in the film, was in Thailand for the filming. The movie has played on Sky One in the UK, the Sci Fi Channel (United States) channel in the US, and Star Movies in Asia.
Rambo (2007-US): Sylvester Stallone returned to Thailand to make the fourth installment in his Rambo franchise, directing and starring as the Vietnam War veteran who takes on a mission to protect Christian missionaries delivering aid to the Karen people in Myanmar. Filming was due to start in January 2007.[8][9]
British–Australian drama film, based on the memoirs of Eric Lomax, a British officer captured by the Japanese and forced to work on the railway. The film was partly filmed around Kanchanaburi Province.
2013
Patong Girl
Boys meets girl with a twist. Award-winning film by Susanna Salonen
A documentary about the Asian labourers (Indian Tamils, Burmese, and Javanese) who worked like slaves on the Siam (Thailand) – Burma death railway line during World War II.
An action movie filmed in Thailand released by the Weinstein Co. The film is based on a fictional story of an American family trying to escape a fictitious coup in an unidentified country in Southeast Asia. Principal actors include Pierce Brosnan, Lake Bell, and Owen Wilson.
Several films have been set in Thailand, but were made elsewhere. These include:
Anna and the King of Siam (1946): The first film adaptation of stories written by Anna Leonowens. The film is still banned in Thailand for historical inaccuracies and because Thai authorities claim its depiction of King Mongkut denigrates and trivializes the monarch and the royal family. It was filmed in California.
The King and I (1956): The film of the musical is banned in Thailand for the same reasons as Anna and the King of Siam.
Anna and the King (1999): With a Thai adviser and many Thai actors in the cast, Andy Tennant's remake of the 1946 film went through several rewrites in an effort to win approval by the Thai government so the movie could be made and shown there. However, the screenplay still contained too many inaccuracies, so the production was moved to Malaysia. The film is banned in Thailand, though video copies have found their way into the kingdom and the film has gained a following.[20]
Brokedown Palace (1999): Alice and Darlene, best friends, decide to take a trip to Thailand to celebrate high-school graduation. While there, they are befriended by charming Australian rogue Nick Parks. Nick convinces them to take a weekend side trip to Hong Kong, but at the airport, they are busted for smuggling drugs. They are convicted in a show trial and sentenced to 33 years; in desperation, they contact Yankee Hank, an American lawyer based in Thailand who has been reported to be helpful if you've got the cash. Most scenes were filmed in the Philippines.
Bright Rainbow After the Rain (2010): The movie is unique in a sense that it is in English and it could be known as the first English movie in Thailand done by Thai students. The movie was filmed in Phayao Province. It is drama about two girls who were best friends- น.ส.สิริพร จันทร์เอี่ยม (Siripon Janauem) as Ana and น.ส.ณัฐณิชา ขอนพิกุล (Natnicha Khonpikul) as Sara. Ana was rich and Sara was poor with no father when she was growing up. Sara's mother sells vegetables at the market for a living. Sara helped her mother by having a part-time job. Sara's best friend Ana wants to study overseas and searches the internet to find overseas scholarship available for Thais. Sara also wanted to study overseas but didn't have the confidence to apply. Finally, Ana finds a scholarship abroad in Canada, but seeing her very poor best friend struggling in poverty has brought pain in her heart and has become her turning point. She cannot stand to see her best friend having so many difficulties in life while she is enjoying life's comfort. So Ana decided to help Sara escape poverty, but wants to do it secretly. She pretends to be Sara and applys for a scholarship in Sara's name. Ana does this without Sara's knowledge. She steals Sara's personal information and passport to complete Sara's scholarship application. Ana wants to study abroad but had sacrifices her dream for the sake of her best friend. At the end, Sara gets a scholarship in Canada through Ana's secret help. The "Bright Rainbow After the Rain" is the first English movie in Thailand with Thai students as the cast. The director Alejandro Cardeinte is an English teacher teaching at Phayao Pittayakhom School (โรงเรียนพะเยาพิทยาคม). The goal of the movie is to help Thai students learn English. The movie has English subtitles but no Thai subtitles. The movie uses simple day-to-day English. The film's soundtrack was written by the movie director himself. But partly, some music he used is not cleared with copyright yet. The movie is for educational purposes only and not for business.[21]
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