Cinemas in downtown Bangkok were pressured to withdraw a popular blockbuster, ‘Hunger Game 3’ or ‘Mockingjay’ from its showing schedule after the authorities earlier today arrested five anti-coup protesters in the Northeast.
Speakers of the cinemas belonging to Apex company at Siam Square, Bangkok's shopping district, announced on Wednesday afternoon that the company decided not to screen the Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay Part 1 in all of its cinemas without clarifying why the company decided to do so.
Mockingjay is the last movie in the Hunger Games trilogy, based on the novel of the same title by Suzanne Collins. The movie is about a fictional country called Panam, which is ruled by a suppressive dictatorial regime based on a city called the Capital while other cities are divided into numbered districts to serve the rich Capital without question. A three-fingered salute is used by the rebels in the story as a sign of resistance against the Capital.
Five students arrested for showing 3-fingered salute during the head of the junta’s visit in Khon Kaen still showing their spirits while being transported to the military camp
According to Rangsiman Rome, one of the members of League of Liberal Thammasat for Democracy LLTD, the police called the cinema personnel and requested that the movie to be removed. The cancellation will automatically cancel a symbolic political activity, ‘Raising three fingers into the cinema’, organized by the group.
In this activity, LLTD Mockingjay out free movie tickets to people who answer the question: In what ways is the Capital in the Mockingjay is similar to Bangkok?
At the movie premiere in London last week, Thai people also gathered in front of the cinema raising up three figures salute while showing the banners read, ‘District Thai’.
Similar to the way people in Panam raised three fingers to protest against the rule of the Capital in the popular work of fiction, Thai anti-coup protesters adopted the same gesture to rally against the junta in the month of the coup in May. The act led to a few protesters being jailed for defying the junta in District Thai.
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[Infographic] Peaceful and normal actions forbidden under junta regime