One more tidbit

I was leaving a restaurant the other day when a portly guy in a windbreaker approached me. He explained in broken Thai that he could tell I was a teacher and that he needed my help. He gestured towards a shadowy stall off the street, where he said I could do some translating for him. Pretty much all my red flags were up by now, so I asked to see what needed translating. He pulled out a much-folded computer print-out of an imdb.com page. It was a description of the newest Rambo movie, called the Eye of the Serpent or something. In about five seconds this had gone from threat of bodily harm to comedy.

The guy explained, again in barely understandable English, that he had heard that Rambo IV was being filmed in Chiang Mai next week. This guy had his hopes set on being a translator on the set, because he knows English, Thai, and the hill tribe dialect of the people being used as extras in the film. All he needed was for me to explain the premise of the movie to him. Well if he couldn't read this piece of paper, I was frankly skeptical of his chances of working with Sylvester Stallone, but I kept that opinion to myself. I guided him through the torturous plot twists of some threatened missionaries, dangerous Thai gangs, and Rambo's call out of retirement (like many other white men past their prime he has retired to Bangkok, perhaps with a young Thai girlfriend? or boyfriend? or kathoey? that's the part of the story I want to know about). Needless to say, the film looked absolutely terrible.