‘Shakespeare Must Die’ was the last film to receive funding from the Abhisit Vejjajiva government’s Make Thailand Strong Film Fund, which supported over 50 film projects including ‘The Legend of Naresuan the Great’ and ‘Uncle Boonme who Can Recall His Past Lives’.  But upon completion in 2012, it was banned from distribution by the Ministry of Culture under the Yingluck Shinawatra government, with the most serious charges a film can receive: that it was a threat to national security and dignity.  Producer Manit Sriwanichpoom and director Ing K (whose film ‘DogGod’ had been banned earlier in 1998 with no recourse to appeal) resolved to fight this infringement of cinematic freedom of expression all the way to the Supreme Administrative Court of the Kingdom of Thailand, which on 20 February 2024 issued the historic verdict to free the film, after a struggle lasting 11 years and 10 months. The early part of the struggle is recorded , eyeball to eyeball, in the documentary ‘Censor Must Die’, which the censors have exempted from censorship by citing article 27(1) of film legislation exempting from censorship “films made from events that really happened”, thereby setting a legal precedent for other cinema verité documentaries to follow. However, no rating means no commercial cinema will show it.

It’s a dicey game of truth and dare to deep-dive into the pit of a tyrant’s heart, this Thai cinematic vision of Shakespeare’s ‘cursed play’ of the original He Who Cannot Be Named. Banned as a threat to national security and dignity in 2012, ‘Shakespeare Must Die’ was finally set free by the Supreme Administrative Court of the Kingdom of Thailand in a historic ruling on 20 February 2024, after a struggle of almost twelve years.

This Shakespearean horror movie exists in two paralell worlds: on stage with Mekhdeth (“One Who would Grasp the Cloud”), the ambitious, bloodthirsty and superstitious warlord who becomes king by regicide, and in the ‘outside world’ beyond the theatre in the contemporary life of an ambitious, bloodthirsty and superstitious dictator of a country, known only as ‘Dear Leader’, and his scary wife. The two worlds mirror each other and soon shatteringly collide. 

The Thai Hi So Lady witches, the vengeful ghost and other horrible pleasures are all here aplenty, but then there’s the real horror of watching a soul‘s tragic disintegration. Dubbed the Great-Grandpa of Horror for its potent, maximalist portrayal of a bad conscience—the evildoer’s ultimate nightmare, ‘Macbeth’ has inspired countless movies by filmmakers of many different cultures and generations. ‘Shakespeare Must Die’ is the first Thai cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare, whose work is almost unknown in Thailand, which never fell under British colonial rule. The film’s Thai actors are not aping legendary performances of Shakespeare; they are in fact virgins speaking Shakespeare’s lines for the first time, with so much freedom, joy and awesome power.  Lady M is played by Tarini Graham, leading lady of ‘DogGod’ (by the same director) with devastating intensity. And since the play was faithfully translated into Thai, the English subtitles are the original lines by William Shakespeare.

Cast:

Pisarn Patanapeeradej, Tarinee Graham, Tortrakul Jantima, Chatdanai Musigchai, Sakul Bunyatat, Nammon Joiraksa, MR Saisingh Siributr, Niwat Kongpien, Chomwan Weeraworawit, Siriwan Itarong, Pissara Umavijjani, Paveena Thakrainate, Prayoon Chaiyet, Ajon Kibreab, Pirun Anusuriya, Prapon Kumjim, Chatchai Puipia, Piak Lek Hip

The Director: Ing K came to filmmaking by way of investigative journalism. Best known as writer of the cult bestseller ‘Behind the Postcard’, a green activist handbook in the form of a travelogue, her first documentaries (‘Thailand for Sale’; ‘Green Menace: the Untold Story of Golf’; ‘Casino Cambodia’) address specific environmental issues. Ten years after her experimental first feature ‘My Teacher Eats Biscuits’ (released 25 years later as ‘DogGod’) was banned by the government censors in 1998, she made ‘Citizen Juling’, the only documentary ever to win Best Picture in the Kom Chad Luek Awards, the Thai equivalent of the Golden Globes; strangely, it remains the only film ever made on the Thai Southern Unrest.  Though long a fan of the gory genre, ‘Shakespeare Must Die’ is her first horror movie.

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