Documentary: Bangkok Girl

Sometimes images say more than BangkokDan’s words. Watch Bangkok Girl, a remarkably accomplished, beautifully photographed and intimate debut documentary by director Jordan Clark that puts a human face on the devastating social issue that is the sad fate of too many impoverished girls in Thailand.

The documentary provides a glimpse of Thailand’s sex tourism told through the experiences of a 19-year-old bar girl named Pla. Working in the bars since the age of thirteen, Pla has managed to avoid selling her body for sex, a remarkable discovery, given her surroundings that sadly cannot last.

Pla tells you much about the “Thai smile”, the ever-present never-minding – and what, for foreigners, remains hidden behind the surfaces.

En route to the film’s startling conclusion, you are given a true understanding of why and how she ended up in her current environment and wonder if she will ever escape.

It may appear that the film’smaker, who is closer than close to Pla, has a penchant for melodrama, poking Pla to spill out her life story and at the end, she is more than willing to comply with his offer. And in the process, inviting us to a small corner of life in Bangkok. Some also speculate that the producer paid Pla for her contribution hence opening up a portal of opportunity for her to fabricate “gloomy” stories to hype up the drama – that is entirely untrue and unfounded, the producers of the documentary assure.

See for yourself – or does this all-too-common fate of a Thai girl in Bangkok leave you cold?

You may have seen it all. The fate of Pla though does shake up some hardened hearts.

“How sweet, innocent, intelligent and seemingly happy the bar girls are,” a reviewer wrote. “It is a complex world there – one the Westerner will perhaps never truly understand.”

See parts 1-4:

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