Lucky Loser
Encyclopedia
2006 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...
Thai
Cinema of Thailand
The cinema of Thailand dates back to the early days of filmmaking, when King Chulalongkorn's 1897 visit to Bern, Switzerland was recorded by Francois-Henri Lavancy-Clarke. The film was then brought to Bangkok, where it was exhibited...
sports-comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
about a small, fictional Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
n country's bid to play in the World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
. Initially, the country depicted in the film was Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, but because of concerns by diplomatic officials that the depiction of Lao players would be seen as offensive to Lao people
Lao people
The Lao are an ethnic subgroup of Tai/Dai in Southeast Asia.-Names:The etymology of the word Lao is uncertain, although it may be related to tribes known as the Ai Lao who appear in Han Dynasty records in China and Vietnam as a people of what is now Yunan Province...
, the film's release in May 2006 was cancelled. The film's production company, GMM Tai Hub, re-edited the film and reshot some scenes to remove any references to Laos. The name of the fictional country is Arvee.
Plot
Pong is one of the greatest football players ThailandThailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
has produced and he's a star in England's FA Premier League. But when there's an opening for coach of the Thailand national team, Pong returns in hopes he'll be named for the job. Instead, he is passed over in favor of a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian coach.
His Aunt Ming, a football fan and inveterate gambler
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
, has just won the lottery
Lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...
and had intended on donating her winnings to the Thai team. However, when her nephew is passed over, she decides to give her money to a regional rival, the struggling team in neighboring Arvee. And she's able to convince the team officials to hire her nephew.
So Pong is named coach of the Arvee side. He sets about filling the team's vacancies with players who display various talents. A man who catches watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...
s becomes the goalkeeper
Goalkeeper (football)
In association football, the goalkeeper occupies a position that represents the last line of defence between the opponent's offence and his own team's goal. The primary role of the goalkeeper is to defend his team's goal and prevent the opposition from scoring a goal...
. The town's aggressive dogcatcher becomes an attacking midfielder
Midfielder
A midfielder is an association football position. Some midfielders play a more defensive role, while others blur the boundaries between midfielders and forwards. The number of midfielders a team uses during a match may vary, depending on the team's formation and each individual player's role...
. A veteran striker
Striker
Forwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...
, banned from the game because of his temper, is lured back in.
Coach Pong whips the players into shape. His methods include having the team train inside a freezer container in order to acclimate themselves to playing in colder climates.
For their part, the Arvee players are eager to conform to their ideals of the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, dying their hair – including their armpit hair – blond, in an effort to look like the European soccer players they idolize and will possibly play against.
The team at first doesn't follow the coach's strategy, and they lose. Then they listen, and they win. But for their final match, against archrival Thailand, they find their strategies no longer work. So they must revert to their earlier ways and play however they see fit.
At times Coach Pong is conflicted between loyalty to his native country and his desire to see the team he is coaching win.
Controversy and re-release
When the film was due to be released on May 18, 2006, the story was about the national soccer team of LaosLaos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
. Laotian foreign ministry officials raised concerns that depictions of the Laotian players would be seen as offensive by Lao people
Lao people
The Lao are an ethnic subgroup of Tai/Dai in Southeast Asia.-Names:The etymology of the word Lao is uncertain, although it may be related to tribes known as the Ai Lao who appear in Han Dynasty records in China and Vietnam as a people of what is now Yunan Province...
and could trigger anti-Thai violence in Laos, similar to the 2003 Phnom Penh riots
2003 Phnom Penh riots
In January 2003, a Cambodian newspaper article falsely alleged that a Thai actress claimed that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand. Other Cambodian print and radio media picked up the report and furthered the nationalistic sentiment which resulted in riots in Phnom Penh on January 29 where the Thai...
.
The controversy also came shortly after another Thai film, Ghost Game
Ghost Game (film)
Ghost Game is a 2006 Thai horror film about 11 contestants on a reality TV show who must stay in an abandoned military prison where atrocities took place years before.-Plot:...
, sparked outrage among Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
n officials, because the teen horror movie made light of the atrocities that occurred under the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
and Tuol Sleng Prison
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge communist regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979...
.
The movie was completed at a cost of 60 million baht
Thai baht
The baht is the currency of Thailand. It is subdivided into 100 satang . The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand.-History:The baht, like the pound, originated from a traditional unit of mass...
, and for a time it appeared that the film's production company, GMM Tai Hub, would have to permanently shelve the film. But through re-editing and reshooting some scenes to remove any traces of Lao flags and national emblems and creating a fictional country called Arvee, the company was able to release the film. Dialogue was loop
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
ed so that whenever anyone said "Laos" they instead would say "Arvee."
Remaining prints of the original film were burned at an event witnessed by the film's producers.