The tsunami disaster as a feature film
A feature film was recently screened at the International Film Festival in Tokyo, which depicts the terrible drama of the 2004 tsunami disaster in the south of Japan in a frightening and realistic manner. Thailand shows.
On the screen, the monstrous waves roar, battering the shore like liquid thunder. A young family, father, mother and three young sons, look with horror at the violence of the water, which then strikes them like a titanic punch. They are swept away by endless streams of water, shattering their peaceful little life, which changes suddenly and forever. It is a dramatization of a nightmare that hits this family, where the makers not only try to recreate the tsunami as it really was, but also want to pay tribute to humanity, which in life-threatening situations continues to cherish hope and the will to survival is sometimes invincible.
'The Impossible'
The reviewer in the Bangkok Post saw the movie “The Impossible” and thought it was a strange sensation to see computer-generated waves on screen after seeing the real catastrophic waves of the tsunami in the northeastern part 24 months ago of Japan, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people. In a way, showing this film is a test, because for obvious reasons, this film may be sensitive to Japanese audiences. There is therefore no (yet) permission to distribute the film in Japan.
To dispel any doubts, the film begins with the announcement that the story is true. Of course we know that the disaster in 2004 really happened, but concretely one wants to say that the story of the five-member family actually happened. In real life it is about a Spanish family and that explains why the film is directed by a Spaniard, Juan Antonio Bayona. The film premiered earlier in Toronto, where the English protagonists also met the real family, which is in fact portrayed. The film follows the Bennets – Henry, Maria and their three sons Lucas, Simon and Thomas – in their ordeal before, during and after the disaster. Seeing the water coming, surviving in this water violence and the emotional horrors afterwards.
Christmas break
The film is therefore about a family that arrives in a resort in Khao Lak in the south of Thailand for a nice Christmas holiday and is of course - unlike the viewer - not aware of the impending doom. Two days after their arrival, the family is enjoying themselves poolside as the earth quakes, the Andaman Sea roars and the wall of water crashes over them.
Bayona recreates from testimonies the poignant confusion of bodies, which are spun around as if in a turbo washing machine, are injured by wandering wood and metal and finally turn into a large cemetery. You see the protagonist diving on her eldest son, both of them are dragged by a huge mass of mud, but manage to cling to a tree trunk and land on the rubble and mud covered beach to be thrown. The rest of the film shows the chaos in hospitals and shelters as Lucas tries to find his father and two brothers, while Maria undergoes the necessary surgery on her lacerated chest and leg.
I myself have only experienced the tsunami from a distance. Yes, I helped raise money and goods for the victims here in Pattaya and followed all the stories on television and newspapers. I am also not a fan of disaster movies, but on the other hand, the realism of this film can also be a blessing for survivors and friends and acquaintances of victims. Perhaps also a curse to see the misery of that time brought up again. I don't know, I have my doubts. Anyway, Thailand apparently has no such doubts, because the film can be seen in cinemas from November 29.
I have experienced it in another way that I still have doubts about is the fact that people were not warned in time.
That day I had to cross to Myamar for my visa at Ranong.
I spoke to people there from Phuket where it was already going on according to them while they had driven at least 400 km.
We were not allowed to cross the river because it was expected that Ranong could also be hit .
Indeed it was strange when suddenly I could see the bottom of the river within seconds .
1 hunch made me quickly go to my car and leave quickly, on the way home we heard the news that Ranong has also suffered.
After 3 days we were allowed to sail, of course we had to pay overstay.
Back then 200 thb per day, now you can even go to jail for it, if you are 1 day late.
What - as far as I know, but I don't know everything - still needs to be done is to set up a warning system. That was Thaksin's sacred intention at the time. This, of course, on an international, or at least Southeast Asian, scale, and if that were not possible then Thailand would have to go solo, but an automatic warning system had to and would be introduced. How is it now? Many countries around the Pacific have such a system. This consists of equipment that registers the movement of the sea and can see (linked to a computer) whether it is a tsunami or not. It is crazy that while Sumatra had already suffered casualties and the tsunami waves took hours to reach Phuket (and several more hours on other coasts of the Indian Ocean), people in Puket, Sri Lanka and even Eastern Africa was hit by this tsunami.
Because we visit Thailand at least once a year, I regularly read the Thailand blog. This story caught my attention because my family, wife and son (1 years old at the time) and I not only actually experienced the Tsunami, but more so because of the content of the piece. The writer more or less asks whether this actually happened. I have not (yet) seen the film and only rely on what the writer indicates and then I notice a number of things that are very similar to what I have experienced. We also arrived in Khao Lak on December 6, 23. We were also in Khao Lak on the morning of December 2004, 26 and sat at the edge of the pool at the restaurant. We also saw the white line coming, first it became quiet, the sea retreated and then the growl. We also ran away. My son and I couldn't escape the wall of water either. I also try to protect my son from the water mass. I pass out for a moment and lose my son from my arms. He and I were dragged hundreds of meters. He also manages to pull himself up on a tree. I too describe the fight in the water as if I were in a washing machine. I too am dragged through a huge mud mass and am injured by stray wood and/or metal. I also go looking for my son later and arrive in a kind of hospital north of Khao Lak and see the chaos and the most terrible things there. On the way to the hospital near Bang Niang I also see the many victims and help these people to recover. The story is true for this part, but the family was probably not Spanish.
I wrote down my story at the time and I believe this can still be found on NOS eyewitness report or if you Google my name.
I can't prove it but I have my doubts about the spanish family that also experienced this. That would be very coincidental. and coincidence does not exist.
Jaap van Loenen 7 November 2012
Dear Jaap,
I've read your story on tisei.org and find it awfully close to the screenplay of The Impossible. The director was Spanish, so it was apparently nice for the promotion to show a Spanish family. I couldn't find if your story was also translated into English or Spanish to give that director an idea. I also don't know if you can do anything about it and even less what you would achieve with it.
Coming back to your story, it is very impressive, I hope that after all these years you have a "normal" life again and that the disaster has not caused too many bad consequences for you and your family.
With your permission, I propose to the editors of thailandblog.nl to post your story from tisei.org on the blog.
Best wishes!
Good morning Gringo,
Yes, the story has been translated into both English and German and placed on various sites, including foreign sites. I agree with you, apart from what I could do about it, it is also what I could achieve with it.
We have been able to pick up our lives reasonably well after our experience, of course that was not easy, certainly not in the beginning, but also at the moment when we are at the commemoration on December 26. But you don't just take a negative experience with you in your backpack. Life is short and everything is relative in relative terms.
Of course I have no objection if you post the story on the thailand blog.
Yours faithfully,
Jaap van Loenen