‘SO CLOSE’ : THAIS REACT TO ‘KILLING’ IN BANGKOK

“The Killing Fields,” the Academy Award-nominated film account of Khmer Rouge terror in Cambodia and of the relationship between an American journalist and his Cambodian aide, opened this week in Bangkok.

Just beyond 100 miles from the Cambodian border, where Khmer Rouge and non-Communist guerrillas are fighting a Vietnamese army, a crowd of modishly dressed Thais filed into the Villa Theater, chattering in anticipation. It was a somber group that left two hours later, drying tears and talking in hushed tones about the anguish that has befallen their Southeast Asian neighbor.

The film has a strong political effect on the Thais, who are concerned that fighting in the region will spill over into their country.

“It’s hard to think about, and it’s so close,” said Jongkolnee Sangngampal, a young banker who had seen the film.

The story covers the time from the Communist Khmer Rouge takeover in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, in April, 1975, to the Vietnamese invasion of December, 1978.

It depicts the experiences of New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, who stayed on after the fall of Phnom Penh, and Dith Pran, his Cambodian colleague, and of their separation when Schanberg left the country and Pran struggled to survive the horrors of Khmer Rouge rule.

The audience at the Villa laughed nervously when a fading passport photo foils an attempt by Western journalists to get Pran out of the country, gasped in revulsion at scenes of Khmer Rouge brutality, murmured in shock when teen-age Khmer Rouge soldiers uproot tomato plants that Pran had planted at a Khmer Rouge work camp.

When it was over, the Thais shuffled out onto the streets of their busy, Westernized city.

“Now it’s time for some chicken tom yum ,” said one young Thai, seemingly reassuring his friends that the Thais could still get a bowl of hot soup, whatever was happening 100 miles to the east.