Deborah's Southeast Asian Adventure

Too cool! I have just left the set of a movie which is being filmed at the resort where I'm staying (beside the pool, to be exact). The film is called "Crocs" and it's part of a made-for-TV series called "Man-Eaters" and it stars Michael Madsen ("Kill Bill", "Resevoir Dogs", "Thelma and Louise", "Wyatt Earp", etc.) The movie's premise concerns an unscrupulous businessman who gets eaten in his pool by a crocodile: karma. They had a specially-trained dog barking in some scenes to warn about the croc's presence. They also had a cameraman filming under water. It' s totally true: the director does call out "action" and "cut". This director had a really cool way of working and frequently changed the dialogue to make it more natural.

It was fascinating to observe the production process. Apparently, the director is very well-known, Stuart something-or-other, and the film is being produced for a tiny budget of only US$1.5 million. It's part of a five-movie series and they're filming one movie right after another here: one movie wraps, the next day another one begins.

I learned all of this from a really cool retired man who I met during dinner (let's call him Horace since he lives here and might not want his views widely-known). Horace and his Thai wife moved over here permanently two years ago when Horace retired after a successful career in St. Louis, New York and L.A. Horace wrote a book about insurance fraud which was published by an Asian publishing company and the same production company filming "Crocs" is potentially interested in filming a screenplay which Horace is currently writing.

Horace and his wife also provided some really interesting insights about the Western man/Thai woman dynamic. He said that Western men are fed up with nagging, aggressive Western women who aren't satisfied even with the equality and gains they've made which drives certain men away to women from less aggressive cultures. He quickly qualified this by saying that while Thai women are often second-class citizens, they are the force in society which "wears the pants" in many ways. He also said (and his wife concurred) that you often see beautiful, young Thai women with old, ugly or overweight guys because they have a very different concept of what's attractive. Simply put, Buddha. So if you're a guy with a gut and jowls, you qualify for the Thai woman's 'Most Sexy Man' category. Horace even said that what's particularly attractive to Thai women is a man with a mole. The longer the hair growing out of the mole, the more desirable the man.

We talked about creativity, innovation and making money in Asia and he says that Asia is still very far behind North America, Europe and the West as they still have a very traditional outlook. For them, it's easier to pirate or copy, rather than to come up with original concepts, plots and ideas. He did say that the movie industry is using places like Thailand more and more, to the detriment of places like Canada, since it is much cheaper to film here and the technical staff are exceptional.

So look out for "Crocs" which will be coming to the Hallmark Channel, DVDs and an iPod near you!