Animism in Khemjira the Series and Sinners (2025)
One of Khemjira screenwriters Jattawa quoted a tweet talk about Khemjira and they raised some interesting points, including Sinners (2025), that I would love to share with everyone!
All translation errors are mine. Not a native Thai speaker. 🙏
◉ OP โซบะเย็น @.In_beninging tweeted:
"Love that when Khemjira talks about folk beliefs, its attitude is paying respect and understanding that those are a part of the local people there.
It’s aware that it’s an outsider, looking in with the non-judgemental eyes and did not treat the beliefs in it as something different. We can see the people, forest and spirits living together there. Fucking good!
(Type while watching the “soul (khwan) calling” scene)"
◉ Jattawa retweeted with quotes:
"The thing that makes the fantasy in the Khemjira’s world different from other fantasy movies is (if not talking in a matter-of-fact way that because it comes from real-life cultures) animism of the people who were erased, abandoned by the mainstream narrative, were finally given a voice.
Similar to the animism in Sinners of African Americans, but in Khemjira, it is the Isan people. Will probably not be bold enough to claim that the series is exactly on the same level as Sinners (because that film fully re-claimed the black power by black people, in every detail) but speaking of the way animism is used as a tool conflicting with the ‘scientism’, which comes from Western white people’s influence that ‘animism’ turns into uncivilized thing.
The most perfect example of the cohabitation of people and supernatural things in Isan in Thai media is probably comes from Apichatpong, who often talk about people chatting with ghosts, tiger spirits, tree deities, other ‘strange’ things by a normal tone as if something that can be met all the time."
(Embedded a cut of the movie “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” by Apichatpong Weerasethakul from MUBI UK & Ireland via Twitter)
"*Addition* All animism of black people and Isan people in mainstream media is mostly mysterious and dangerous (people afraid of the word ‘voodoo’, afraid of being cursed). But all animism in Sinners is all-around and is used to protect people in the community (black people/ Isan people) rather than make the people in the community seem dangerous (‘voodoo’ of black people, calling the soul (khwan) of Isan people etc.)"