Hunger Games in Real Time

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The latest Hunger Games movie, Mockingjay – Part 1, started Thursday in Thai theaters, and some students have been using the “three-fingered salute” protest gesture – that in the films are targeted against the totalitarian Capitol – against the real life military government that is in place since the May 22 military coup. The students are arrested for it, but they are released after being held a while and talked to. The generals know that the world is watching them.

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Thursday was my monthly meet up with friends in the city, so I left early to get in two movies before evening. I didn’t see Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 because it is playing most places and will be around a while. (Maybe.) I saw Whiplash for the second time; it is one of the best movies I’ve seen recently, and the performance by J.K. Simmons is absolutely astonishing. I also saw Interstellar, which was one hell of a ride.

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Before leaving home I had read in local news reports that the Apex theater group (Lido and Scala theaters in the heart of Bangkok) was suddenly canceling their Thursday showing of Hunger Games at the Scala. Apparently someone was trying to buy up and distribute a huge number of tickets, possibly setting up a mass protest against our present system of martial law. Apex is said to have canceled the movie on its own with no order from the generals. I planned to see Whiplash at Lido, and I immediately saw military and police presence on the way there. No incidents happened that I know of. Friday, three students were arrested for flashing the three-fingered salute at Scala.

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I saw my second film at Siam Paragon theaters, and the place was swarming with military and police, with some VIP military folks under heavy escort. In the evening I got on the crowded Skytrain to go to my meeting place, and found myself standing face to face with a young Thai teenager in a Boy Scout uniform. I caught myself before I gave him the traditional Boy Scout salute – which is with three fingers, like the protest salute in Hunger Games!

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-Zenwind.

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