Tuesday, July 29, 2008

FILM AND REAL LIFE 8: "I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE" IS A FEEL-GOOD MOVIE COMPARED TO THE REALITY IN THAILAND

I felt very bad after watching the copyrighted vcd of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978, Meir Zarchi, A+). The film is too powerful for me. But I felt much worse after reading the news of Aruni Tongprom. Reality is always worse than fiction, especially in this case.

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE may make me feel bad to watch the rape and torture scene in the film, but the film still shows that the woman succeeds in her revenge, and there seems to be no police chasing after her. Is this a kind of happy ending? Purely fictional kind of happy ending?

The reality is much worse than that. I just knew from Guru Magazine about the case of Aruni Tongprom and Aswin Wongwitaya. A man attempted to rape Aruni, so she cried for help. Aswin tried to help her by fighting with the rapist, and then Aruni killed the rapist by using her knife.

Then the court of Thailand sentenced Aruni and Aswin to jail.

What does this mean? Does Thai law wants to say that if someone wants to rape and kill us or our daughters, we should do nothing and let them rape and kill us, because if we try to defend ourselves, that means we break the law?

In my own opinion, I think Aruni and Aswin should be freed.

The case of Aruni makes me feel much worse than what happens in I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, because I can live with the fact that there are evil men around us who may want to kill or hurt us, but it’s hard for me to live with the fact that Thai law prefers us to be raped and killed, instead of defending ourselves.

I copied the following piece of news from Bangkok Post’s website:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/100708_News/10Jul2008_news03.php

“A former Thai boxer who intervened to prevent a woman being raped has been jailed, along with the woman he saved, for accidentally killing the attacker.

The incident, on Aug 29, 2005, was viewed by the Criminal Court yesterday as an attempt to bludgeon a person to death.

The judge sentenced former boxer Aswin Wongwitaya, 27, to three years in prison. The woman, Aruni Tongprom, 40, was given two years in jail.

According to the prosecution, Aswin admitted he "lightly kicked" the would-be rapist, identified only as Ya.

The woman admitted she used a knife to slash the attacker's face several times after he collapsed due to a series of blows from Aswin.

"I was frightened after seeing his blood, so Aswin and I fled. I never thought he would die," Aruni told the court.

The judge ruled that Aruni acted out of anger and also fined her 100 baht for carrying a weapon in public without a valid reason.

All the punishments were halved because the two confessed to the killing.

Aruni was a vendor of Buddhist amulets at Sanam Luang.

On the day of the incident she was asleep at her stall and was woken by Ya, a scavenger, who was drunk and tried to rape her, the court was told.

Aruni managed to escape and ran for help. Aswin responded to her call.

Aswin approached Ya and kicked him several times in Muay Thai style.

Aswin later told police that he had been a boxer before he became a street vendor.

The officers found Aswin had earlier been jailed for three years for throwing an imitation grenade at Bangkok Metropolitan Administration inspectors, or thetsakit, behind the Criminal Court.

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