Culture and Religion Through the Len of Film and Literature

South East Asia is a region with the variety and complexity of many cultures and religions. Every country in this region has its own unique distinctive culture and religious difference from one to another.

Film is one of the best and the most popular medium to illustrate this complexity. Films are related to culture and religion by showing us the narrative, character, and environment that are unique that we can be recognized. Through the film lens, the overall plot of the story may resemble the culture we know, the religion that we heard, and its current issues from war. Film such as First They Killed My Father is not only illustrated the armed conflict issue that we discussed in the last blog and talkshow. (Check out: How can film help raise the awareness of "Armed Conflict" in the region?) But it also illustrated many other significant parts of Cambodia. As we discussed in the second episode of our AUPP Talkshow below, this film illustrates many cultural and religious aspects. Please take a look at our second episode talk show first before continuing my blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrtrQcqk28w

As you finished watching our second episode talk show, you may get the idea of how can the film and literature spread their idea and aspect of the local culture and religion to the international audience. The film First They Killed My Father is not only portraying armed conflict, Krama which is the cultural aspect of being Khmer are shown throughout the movie. Moreover, this movie also shows how religious and monks were abolished under this cruel regime.

Besides Cambodian culture and religion through the film First They Killed My Father, Mae Nak film is also another incredible example of how culture and religion are illustrated through the medium of cinematography. In another episode of AUPP Talkshow below, we will discuss Mae Nak Film role in portraying Thai religion and Culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZBgo6-YoCI

After watched our third episode of AUPP talkshow above, I believe most of us here have a better understand about the similarity between Khmer and Thai culture through the film Mae Nak. In order to make thing more clearer and easier to understand, I would recommend to watch our classmate group assignment video by team Monychot (click on hyperlink to view the video). Mathura and Sokheng did a really great job explaining the similarities and difference between the Thai and Khmer culture portraying in the film (between 6:44 to 11:20). I really love this sentence by Sokheng:

"In a way, Thailand and Cambodia’s horror films are the same, but also different from each other since each country has different legends and storytelling from one generation to another.

"Same same but differences" is the shortest quote to summary the uniqueness of our Southeast Asia's cultures. Take Khmer and Thai culture as the example, we may have the same root and the same ancestors in the very beginning of time. But as time passed by, our culture start to differentiate little by little until it become each distinctive culture. And this is the beauty of Asian cultures.

Now we have a better and clearer understanding of how can film and literature play an important role in spreading our local culture. In addition to the example of First They Killed My Father film and Mae Nak film being the medium to illustrate culture and religious, what type content do you want us to cover next in our future episode? Feel free to drop your opinion and recommendation in the comment below!