#jattawa

Hi Claire,

First of all, I truly apologize for not answering this ask sooner. I want to answer with the translation of this but life keeps getting in the way. This ask is constantly in the back of my mind every time I open Tumblr so I did not forget about it at all ><

Secondly, thank you for introducing me to their Twitter account and this post. It is amazing and insightful all around. I have also (roughly) translated their tweets about animism in Khemjira and Sinners. I always love to hear from creatives behind the scenes. Also I learnt that Jattawa is Namping's senior in Chulalongkorn University and they just had a presentation about their personal film project. They are supportive and really cool. (like waaaaay too cool for me, the movies rec, music, everything ✨👉👈)

Finally, let's get into it.

All translation errors are mine. Not a native Thai speaker. 🙏

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“Phi mi bun” (t/n: ghost with merit, ผีมีบุญ): When ghost is scary…because they are different.

📝 by Jattawa @.justtevery1 on September 20, 2025.

This thread is about the writing process specifically for the “phu mi bun” (t/n: Holy Man, “men with merit”) part in the series. I decided to talk about this part because I think it is important in the series itself and in Thai mainstream media.

1. Who are the “phu mi bun” (ผู้มีบุญ)?

In brief, “phu mi bun” is a group of people formed mainly in Isan, standing up to resist the oppression from the Siamese kingdom, which exploited their labour, limited their education opportunities, and erased the “Lao” identity of the people there. The Siamese government viewed them as rebels and named them “phi” (t/n: ghost, ผี → “phi mi bun”) to dehumanize, devalue them.

The rebellions of “phu mi bun” (t/n: Holy Man's Rebellion) occurred in many places of Isan, not limited to Ubon Ratchathani. Many people in the group were killed publicly in broad daylight in front of the villagers as threats. The most discussed event is the battle at Non Pho, Saphue Village, where many “phu mi bun” were massacred, to the point that elder villagers said they saw human skulls scattered all over the field where it happened.

2. Why did we tell this story?

We received a request from the team that there needed to be a plotline that let Ramphueng “take a temporary break”. At first, the idea was to introduce another local culture aspect, but after analyzing all the important elements in Khemjira, we found there were 3 significant elements: ghosts, Isan and history/ past lives.

Ghost can be an energy through time, fragments from the past, of which its “haunting” is a reminder.

Furthermore, “phi mi bun” are the people who were treated unfairly, oppressed and killed. Therefore, we added this in order to reinforce the theme that “ghosts” are not only spirits coming to scare but also the voice of the people who once existed, who were in pain and wanted to be accepted, to be understood.

Like Ramphueng, she is not a purely evil ghost, but a spirit with intentions, wanting everyone to know and feel her, which makes it no different from “phi / phu mi bun” in history.

3. Fiction blends with truth

The power of mainstream media is immensely huge, but rarely it speaks for the forgotten people in history. We’re interested in the reactions of pop culture when opening the space for the stories of marginalized individuals.

We were emotional seeing “Thom - Choi”, the lesbian couple in Thai history, mentioned as a love tragedy and hate crime in the past, or seeing “Khathoey Hom Khieow” (the Green Katoey) appeared in BL media, not being buried in the tiny footnote of history that people may skip. We wanted to do the same thing with the series that we were responsible for.

→ t/n: These characters were in “I Feel You Linger In the Air”. They are real people that were documented briefly in history, via newspaper or word-of-mouth - a true blend of truth and fiction. Details in the post "The Portrayal of Thai Queer Ordinary Lives in I Feel You Linger In The Air" by @clairedaring (the way I referenced back to you ahskksdhjs). I read it first and it really helped me appreciate everything even more <3

It would be a lie if we said we didn’t want this series to reach international popularity. We believe it can bring the story about the “ghost that terrifies the state” to millions of watchers all around the world.

Because if the state wants people to forget, then we will make the whole world remember them together.

Conclusion:

Thank you to Teacher Thanom Chapakdee, who played an important role in creating the Ubon Agenda and the performative art to commemorate the “phu mi bun”, helping us in re-telling this story.

Even though he is not here to witness, the seeds he sowed have blossomed beautifully.

P.S. The villagers at the Saphue village want the field where the massacre happened to become a historic tourist attraction, they don’t want people to be afraid of visiting.

Despite not being an "aesthetic" place, it is extremely important for history.

We believe many have already researched this themselves since last week, but we will still attach some links for everyone.

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.)"