THAI TELEMOVIES

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VCD

Many Thai companies such as RS Promotion, GMM Grammy, ST Video release movies produced strictly for VCD and DVD players during decade 2000s. This business has grown due to the strong demand for Thai movies.

Due to some struggles, the producer of the movie "Pra-A-Paimanee" couldn't find screen space due to business conflicts. So the company has turned to the CD format. More than 800,000 copies of "Pra-A-Paimanee" were sold. This success kicked off the trend.

Many telemovies are related to horror story plots.

Telemovie plots are less complicated. They are simple and easy to understand. ชายา was released in year 2003.

The booming telemovie industry is partly a result of multiplex culture, which tends to screen one big movie in more than half the theatres. Also the average duration of a screening has been reduced to three weeks.

It is an unknown secret that in Bangkok many pirated Video CD are available for sale. Often bad copies are sold, i.e. the pirate has shot with a camcorder during a movie projection. If the Thai film "Nang Nak" has not surpassed the American movie "Titanic", it is due to illegal copies. During the second week after the movie was released in cinema, illegal copies were already available for 150 baht.

Tele-Movie is celebrating its breakthrough with 'Miss Queen Thailand', a comedy about tranvestite beauties, which has sold 200,000 copies in just two months in year 2003.

Most telemovies are comedies, investigations, mysteries and romances.

Many telemovies are related to terrifying plots. Recent telemovies use stars from Thai TV series or "LAKHON" (ละคร) to attract more viewers.

Telemovies carry an average cost of Bt5 million per production, compared to Bt25 million for a cinematic release. The producers don't have to compete with the US movies for the limited spaces in cinema multiplexes.

The recent renaissance of Thai cinema laid the foundation for the advent of Thai telemovies.

Many telemovies put the stress on a light erotic content and a suggestive cover.

Many erotic telemovies are sexy remakes of famous Thai movies such as ขวัญเรียม, ขุนแผน or based on Thai folkore feminine personages (นารีผล, พระอภัยมณี, กินรี).

Telemovies on VCD format such as พยัคฆ์ร้ายพ่ายรัก were action telemovies. It lasts 1h03mn.

พยัคฆ์ร้ายพ่ายรัก is about two ruffians groups meeting to exchange money and drugs. Police intervenes, but a few policemen are killed. The police leader Ek wishes to dismiss, but finally stays to revenge his men. Ruffians wish to revenge also. Ek is assigned a new feminine assistant.

VHS

VHS telemovies (เทเลมูฟวี่) were popular during decade 1990s and beginning of decade 2000s. They were then replaced by telemovies on VCD format.

Telemovies on VHS format often last around 1h10mn to 1h20mn.

สาปประกาศิต is a thriller telemovie about a young lady falling in a love with an young man and unaware that he is a hitman.

Telemovies on VHS format such as ล่าพยัคฆ์ include sexy scenes. Sometimes sexy scenes were censored so the telemovie only lasts one hour. Sometimes the sexy scenes were not censored.

ล่าพยัคฆ์ is an action telemovie about a young lady bringing journalists in the forest to investigate about illegal loggers. Issues happen where they are discovered by the illegal loggers...

Telemovies on VHS format such as จูบแล้วตบ were comedy telemovies. Thriller, murder enquiry, horror, action, drama were popular plots for VHS telemovies.

จูบแล้วตบ is a comedy telemovie about a young man, being a former ruffian, going back to his district. He has to work hard to convince people that he changed and also to find love.

Telemovies on VHS format such as แรงรัก เพลิงปรารถนา were dubbed as it is cheaper to shoot telemovies and perfect voices can be added during the post production phase.

แรงรัก เพลิงปรารถนา is a romance telemovie about a young man becoming invalid. His love becomes endangered as both wonder where this relationship will lead them...

Telemovies on VHS format such as เกมส์...กามเทพ have always a sharp and colorful picture as they are newly shot movies.

เกมส์...กามเทพ is a romance telemovie about a young married man having a mistress. He fails to stop this extra marital relationship and it jeopardizes his wedding as the mistress is very possessive...

Telemovies on VHS format such as เสน่หาพยาบาท were featuring unknown actors and actresses. Telemovies had limited budget.

เสน่หาพยาบาท is a horror telemovie about a young woman married to a middle age man. She builds a plan with her lover to kill her husband to get the heritage. The son is back. Spirit doctors fight against each other.

Of course some telemovies on VHS format such as บนทางรัก can last as long as cinema movies. For example telemovie บนทางรัก lasts 1h41mn.

บนทางรัก is a thriller telemove about young lady Min being a radio presenter. She gets harassed by a deranged fan and her boss.

Of course some telemovies on VHS format such as ฟ้าไม่สิ้นแสงตะวัน can last as long as cinema movies. For example telemovie ฟ้าไม่สิ้นแสงตะวัน lasts 1h34mn.

ฟ้าไม่สิ้นแสงตะวัน is a family drama telemovie about a middle age lady looking for her children. After being released from jail after 20 years, she wishes to be reunited with them but some of them reject her.

Telemovies on VHS format such as ซ้อนแผนฆาตกรรม / "A Complex Murder" were thriller telemovies.

ซ้อนแผนฆาตกรรม is about a policeman looking for love. He finally meets a beautiful woman but she is already married. She decides to use the policeman to get rid of her husband. She joins efforts with another policeman betraying his friend for money.

Telemovies on VHS format such as ธิดาซาตาน / "The Evil's Daughter" were horror telemovies.

ธิดาซาตาน is about occult magic with two masters affronting each other. One master involves his girlfriend also but will regret it...

Telemovies on VHS format such as แค้นพยาบาท were horror telemovies. It lasts 1h23mn.

แค้นพยาบาท is about a local village leader loving ladies. He is fond of Nam Khang, wife of one of the villagers. Taking profit that the husband is out to find a work, he abuses lady Nam Khang, who is also pregnant. He strangles her and she becomes a ghost. Nam Khang ghost is now looking for revenge. The husband is unaware that his wife Nam Khang is a ghost...

Telemovies on VHS format such as คืนชีพแค้นสวาท were horror telemovies. It lasts 1h33mn.

คืนชีพแค้นสวาท is a group of friends stay in hotel and plan to party. One of them brings illicit drugs. There is a ghost in the hotel. He recognizes Sopha, one of the young lady, as his former love. He wishes to kill all of them as he was killed by them before in a previous life....

To attract audience, some Thai telemovies feature a famous Thai actor. Telemovies on VHS format such as ฉีกฟ้า ล่าโหด were action telemovies. It lasts 1h33mn.

ฉีกฟ้า ล่าโหด is about two brothers, i.e. one is thai boxer and one is a ruffian. It features famous actor Dam Datsakorn.

CABLE TV

Telemovies (เทเลมูฟวี่) are facing severe competition nowadays. Thai Movies production company such as Pranakorn is now also providing their movies on YouTube nowadays. Releasing them on DVD has limited benefits as piracy is high those days. So making them official on their channel, the companies can earn money through YouTube advertisement. Some Thai movies such as ฮักแพง got 38M views just after a few months! Costs are limited as no need to release DVD, no need to have stock cost. Recently movies were geo-tagged and some free movies were only available in Thailand.

นทีชีวิต / The Flood was released in year 2013 and lasts 1h28mn. It features three short movies related to big flooding in 2011.

The Thai movies companies can earn money by renting / selling through digital ways thanks to Google or iTunes platforms. Company Five Star Production has redigitalized in HD format their whole portfolio, i.e. dozens of movies but only two were released through Blu-ray, i.e. คู่กรรม and ด้วยเกล้า. Platform Netflix is also popular. Before telemovies were popular and were released in various types. Nowadays it is only erotic, horror and comic. There is hard competition from TV channels with a big numbers of TV series released on Youtube, Netflix. Due to piracy, releasing on VCD / DVD format is no longer commercially viable. Many productions are only released digitally nowadays.

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