Former psy-war officer gives director’s take on junta film

Thursday, 05 August 2010 12:54 Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Amid widespread criticism of the junta propaganda film, Lotus Blooming in the Dawn, produced by the Ministry of Information, activists are demanding that travel bans be imposed on the total of 68 high-profile actors and actresses who took part. Bearing the brunt of the outcry is the film’s director, Tin Than Oo, a former army officer who served in the Psychological Warfare Department for 20 years.

Mizzima spoke to Tin Than Oo about who benefited from this film and some of the events behind the scenes.

Q: How did you get involved in the production of this film? Did someone order you to do it? Is the screenplay your own or someone else’s?

A: I underwent heart bypass surgery in March last year for the second time. I was in bed and could not do anything because of the surgical incision. At the time, the Ministry of Information invited me to discuss production of the film.

At first, the ministry had a plan to produce the film themselves. The screenplays and scripts were written by Nyein Min and Hlaing Aung, on which they invited me to give my opinion. They then asked for my assistance in combining their two sets of screenplays and scripts, but they’d not yet asked me to direct the film.

I asked them to spare me from the production as my health condition was not in good shape so they went ahead with pre-production themselves. After some time, they asked me again to combine the screenplays and scripts … so I tried to combine these two pieces and found out that it was too difficult to do so.

Anyway I tried my best … to combine the two but not to my full satisfaction. I then complained about the long duration of film’s setting, starting from the pre-Second World War and pre-independence periods. How can we find an ending to this very long storyline and plot?

I asked them to drop the pre-independence setting … and took pains to tell them I couldn’t direct. I also asked them to check the script against the historical facts and background of this plot. They invited again experts such as Tekkatho Myat Thu and Chit Naying and senior officials from the Information Ministry, to discuss the plot, what to insert and what to delete.

At last, our script had about 60 pages. I asked the officials again if they wished to include all of it and they said yes. However, it was impossible to include all of the content in one part. Finally, it was structured in three parts, each with a running time of one hour and 45 minutes.

Q: Did you spend a lot of money on the many stars that appear in this film?

A: Not much because meals were served to the entire crew at each location free of charge by respective divisional authorities. The Ministry of Information had to spend only 80 million Kyats. Moreover, we didn’t have to pay stars at their full rate. The total cost might have reached 500 million if we had to do so.

Q: You must have had to pay these stars a lot. How much was it?

A: It varied … We didn’t need to pay them their full rate. They understood the situation and that the government would pay them in kind, with a 50 per cent concession on their income taxes. It also agreed to provide more concessions when some of them complained about excessive taxes.

They were recruited … by the ministry in consultation with the Motion Picture Association. The government paid them in various forms and invited them to dinner, where they were also given honoraria.

I was given some money in honorarium too, about 400,000 Kyats. I didn’t ask them to pay me more and I didn’t ask them to give me more benefits in kind.

Q: The screenplay was not your own. Were you satisfied with it? What were the difficulties and drawbacks?

A: If I had to do it on my own, I would not have made such a long storyline. There must be a single, clear-cut theme in a film. For instance, you can’t run away from the crime you committed, smoking is not good, the bad consequences of drinking liquor, etcetera. If not … with many themes in a single film, the setting will be too long and themes will go astray.

Q: Do you think any distortions were made by the stars in playing real, historic characters from Burma’s past? Did you have any trouble in bringing these characters to life?

A: There was a split between U Nu and Kyaw Nyein (in 1958). But we could not find an actor who looked like U Nu … and none of these stars could play the role perfectly. We had similar problems with Kyaw Nyein and Ba Swe. All of them were really seasoned politicians with dignified roles in the past. The stars couldn’t play these characters.

Q: Was there any censorship of the film and which scenes were cut?

A: Yes, some scenes were censored but not many. We shot this film in accordance with true history. For instance, in the 1958-split story (when Ba Swe also fell out also with U Nu and their Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League or AFPFL split into two factions), Ba Swe told his men: “In the past, my comrades called me Kyagyi (Big Tiger) Ba Swe as I performed my duty very resolutely, with firm conviction. Now they are calling me Nwagyi (cattle) Ba Swe as I’m losing this virtue.” We used this quote … but the censor board cut it, calling it too harsh.

Q: Some critics said this film was psychological warfare; how would you respond?

A: I served in the psychological warfare department for 20 years as an officer. If I had to include psy-war elements in this film, I wouldn’t have made it like this. This film was done in a forthright manner but psy-war does not operate like that – it reaches its point and theme subtly. I carried out many such operations and had a lot of experience in it.
The plot and screenplay were not of my choice; I just followed what they gave me in a manner they agreed upon.

Q: If you were to make a psy-war film with your own screenplay, what would it be?

A: I would make a film like The Longest Day on our “Maethawaw Battle” with many actors. In The Longest Day the film hit hard blow against the Germans and Nazism. (Editor’s note: The Longest Day was actually a 1962 Daryl Zanuck film based on the 1959 history book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about the “D-Day”, Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, during the second world war, so it could hardly be considered to have struck a blow against Hitler’s Germany or Nazism). On the other hand, Rambo is childish and unrealistic, with a single man killing a lot of people. And I’d like to make a film like Platoon. The people accepted such films.

There is one principle in psychological warfare, which is “never oppose what people like”. We must please the general audience in our productions with at least 80 per cent of what they would like, including humorous parts. The elements that need to be injected as psy-war should make up not more than 20 per cent. In this film, that proportion was reversed.

Q: Many people criticised your film, citing many distortions of historical facts. What do you think of such attitudes to your Lotus Blooming in the Dawn?

A: I’ve found such criticisms on the internet. There were other people checking the historical facts of this production. For instance, General Ne Win was not commander-in-chief in 1948, Lieutenant General Smith Dun was. He was an ethnic Karen and no one knew about him. He was in the post when the country regained independence. Similarly, the air force chief of staff was Saw Shi Show, also an ethnic Karen. At the time, U Nu couldn’t suppress or defeat the Karen insurrection so he gave in to their demands. Thein Pe Myint, Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein then put pressure on him to remove these high-ranking Karen commanders and they were forced to retire (Editor’s note: Smith Dun was jailed, according to scholar Martin Smith). General Ne Win was appointed as commander-in-chief. After that, the Karen started their insurgency and the Karen revolution. That’s all.

Q: You were a soldier and later became writer and director. How did you switch to these new careers?

A: First I was an infantry soldier. Then superior officers called me to serve making Tatmadaw Sarzin (army educational and training publications). First I refused but they forced me to serve in this department as they couldn’t find other appropriate people. In this way I was shifted from my infantry battalion and was ordered to publish the Sarzins.

Then I was recalled to the War Office to make films but I knew nothing about film-making. I had to study this subject and underwent training.

Psychological warfare does not only feature in writing and film-making. There is a lot of other work in this trade, including dropping leaflets from the air.

In the “8888 uprising”, we dropped leaflets from air warning the protesters that the army would attack if they didn’t stop their demonstrations. Similarly, we dropped leaflets along the border after many students had fled to the countryside after the uprising asked them to return home. These are psy-war tactics.

Film is popular among the people and I became well known through this medium. In fact, there are two main types of psy-war tactics. The first is covert operations. No one knows who is doing this work. In writing and broadcasting, no one knows who is producing the articles or the source of the broadcasts.

The second type is overt operations. The people who carry out these must be made public. In this film, we mentioned the defence and information ministries as the producers. But the director has also had to bear the brunt and ramifications of this film.

So the director had to bear both weal and woes of this film. In the mindset of our people, the people see the director as the sole decision-maker. So they put all the blame on the director, but that is unfair. There was “on-paper” screening in both pre- and post-production. They (The authorities) would also find fault with a magnifying glass in post-production too. This was their rule. If they were unsatisfied with our production, they would order us to reshoot this or that scene.

Q: Did you ever consider the public hatred you would bring upon yourself for making this film?

A: Some people understand our situation. Those who don’t understand will scold us. Nevertheless, we must take responsibility when our names are listed in the credits. I won’t evade this responsibility by claiming ignorance. I will never do that. I won’t make a total denial. I could have evaded this situation on health grounds and put myself in hospital, but I didn’t … [and] tried my best to fulfil my duty.

Q: Why did you retire from the army? Do you have any ambition for politics?

A: I’m a former soldier. I retired from the army as General Staff Officer Grade I with the rank of lieutenant colonel … as I was in poor health at that time. I have no plans to take part in politics.

Q: Do you have any plans to make a film about the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)? Did they offer you the chance of making such a film?

A: I told them I couldn’t do it. Though they came to me and said they’d like me to make such a film, they had no concrete plans or resources. They just came and asked me what to do. I replied that doing nothing was the best idea but they continued to talk about the film and ask for my suggestions. I told them I couldn’t do that even as my health was so poor at the time. After filming Lotus Blooming in the Dawn, I had to rest for about two months. I had twice undergone heart surgery and the latest surgical incision had not yet fully healed when I began to make this movie. It was started last year and shooting took 29 days, excluding travelling time.

Q: Do you plan to make films about any other true stories such as the 1988 uprising?

A: No. I once wrote a script about it but permission was denied and I also lost the manuscript. Yes, I once wrote a true story about the students … based on interviews with those who had returned from the border. There was a press committee in our military establishment, which was higher up the chain and stricter than the civilian Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (censor board). This committee neither permitted nor rejected my manuscript, but just said “decision pending”. Then I lost both typed and handwritten manuscripts. I could not rewrite it again.