by Nay Thwin
Monday, 04 February 2008 00:00
Despite the Burmese government's effort to ban the recently released Hollywood film Rambo, local residents in Rangoon say a downloaded version of the movie is making its way among a circle of friends.
While cinema halls cannot show the movie, which takes as its storyline Burma's current political crisis, and video rental shops in Rangoon are not to posses copies, a downloaded version from the Internet is making its rounds, said a local resident, who wished not to be named.
"Some of the video rental shops have put up a sign that reads – 'We don't have a copy of Rambo 4 released in USA on January 25' - as many people continue to ask for it," the resident told Mizzima.
However, he said that the movie was downloaded from the Internet and burned onto a CD by activist youth and is being circulated among friends and trusted people as it could land possessors of the CD in jail.
The fourth Rambo movie, which is partially shot along the Thai-Burmese border, depicts Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone as a Vietnam War veteran who comes out of retirement in Bangkok to rescue Christian missionaries, who were abducted by Burmese army troops while supplying aid to ethnic Karen villagers.
While Burmese political activists both inside and outside cheered the movie as revealing the brutality of the junta in remote areas of the country, viewers in Rangoon are confused as to whether or not the movie contains any real storyline, the local resident said.
According to news reports, Rambo, which opened on January 25, was listed second last week at the North American box office, and had already made $18.2 million in its first week.
Meanwhile over 600 Burmese residents, wearing red shirts, attended a special showing of the movie at Singapore's Bugis Junction Cinema.
Organizers of the event said they had requested all viewers to come in red in commemoration of the September protests, where at least 31 people are reported to have died and hundreds of monks and civilians were arrested by the ruling junta.
As part of the special event, organizers played Burmese revolutionary songs and student movement songs. And as the movie was about to begin the more than 600 viewers stood to salute the Burmese national flag and in all their strength sang the Burmese national anthem.
"But as the movie began there was a great silence and a feeling of sadness and anger filled the hall. As the crowd witnessed rape, mass killings, and the burning of villages, there were sympathetic groans from some of the viewers who had witnessed the 1988 crackdown," according to Kyaw Soe, a member of the Overseas Burmese Patriots group, which organized the event.
A special ticket booth was set up for the event and organizers said all 600 tickets were sold as Burmese activists, veteran politicians, and even migrant workers came to see the show, Kyaw Soe said.
"With Burmese people, ranging in age from the elderly to young children, coming to see the show, the hall was crowded with overseas Burmese," Kyaw Soe said, adding that the event was able to further publicize the Burmese issue as the organizers briefed reporters and correspondents, who were waiting outside the cinema hall, on the situation in Burma.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
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