SHOCKED BY "AFTERSHOCKS" (Rakesh Sharma)

This is my reply to Jogesh in my English-only blog:
http://celinejulie.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/twelfth-poll-politics-will-tear-us-apart/

I regret I haven’t seen FINAL SOLUTION (2003). It was once shown here in the Bangkok International Film Festival a few years ago, but I decided not to go to see it because the film was shown here in the 2-hour version, but I wanted to see the 218-minute version. So I thought I had better wait for the full version. But that opportunity never comes. I should have decided to go to see the 2-hour version at that time.

AFTERSHOCKS is a real surprising film for me. I decided to go to see it because I had no choice at that time. It was the only film shown at that time slot in the Bangkok Film Festival in 2002. I was not interested in documentary, especially political documentary. But I decided to go to see it because I didn’t want to waste my time waiting for the next film. I really made the right choice at that time. After I had seen this film, I cried for about half an hour. I also like the way this film uses the song THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. I used to hate this song very much, because this song was too popular in Bangkok. But I like this song much more after I saw AFTERSHOCKS. Somehow this film can turn a boring song into a meaningful song.

Unfortunately, what had happened in AFTERSHOCKS also happened in Thailand later. After the tsunami in the south of Thailand, many Thai poor villagers in the affected areas were swindled or exploited by some rich evil people. These rich people want to possess the land of the poor, so when the rich saw that the villages of the poor had been destroyed by the tsunami, the rich tried to find a way to cheat the poor so that the rich could possess the land. I wished at that time that AFTERSHOCKS be shown widely in Thailand or be shown in a Thai TV. I think this film has the ability to educate many people in Thailand, including the poor, the government officials or some NGOs to try to find a way to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

AFTERSHOCKS also corresponds to my viewpoint that natural disaster is hardly as fearful as man-made disaster.