"Hunger Games" series: Three students arrested in Thailand for giving free movie tickets

The Hollywood film series, Hunger Games, is definitely causing problems in China and Thailand. Three Bangkok university students in the country were on Thursday arrested for handing out free tickets to see the third installment in the movie franchise - "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1"- which opens on Friday in U.S. movie theaters and other countries around the world.

In China, the film's release has been delayed indefinitely, postponed perhaps till January 2015
Now, why are these countries afraid of the movie? Suggestions are that the film's overtly political narrative may have gone against Chinese censors.

The “Hunger Games” series sets an invented world where a highly centralized, authoritarian state rules over deeply impoverished and oppressed communities. It is believed that viewers may catch a glimpse of how Beijing’s rule over its far-flung provinces is.

In Thailand, protesters have borrowed from the movie, a gesture of resistance to the countries totalitarian government led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha who led a military coup on May 22. The military has quashed any public demonstration of resistance to the coup and a ban on political gatherings remains in place.

After the coup, some protesters flashed a three-fingered salute inspired by the Hunger Games series. The salute has become emblematic with Thai pro-democracy protesters, and the Thai government has warned the public against using it.

One of the arrested students, Natchacha Kongudom told reporters: “The three-finger sign is a sign to show that I am calling for my basic right to live my life”. He had made the gesture outside a cinema.

But Police Colonel Visoot Chatchaidet told reporters that the students were not arrested but simply invited for a talk.

According to Reuters, “Natchacha is a supporter of the Thai Student Centre for Democracy (TSCD) which distributed over 100 tickets to watch the film at one Bangkok cinema. The cinema chain APEX that owns that venue canceled the screening. APEX declined to comment on the reasons for the cancellation on Thursday.

TSCD organizers said they were not staging a demonstration.

"There may be some hidden messages in the movie, but we are also a group that enjoys films," TSCD organizer Ratthapol Supasopon told reporters before being taken into custody.

The detentions in Bangkok came the day after five members of a crowd were detained for making the salute and revealing an anti-coup slogan on their T-shirts as Prayuth began a speech in the northern city of Khon Khaen. The city is a stronghold for supporters of the government Prayuth ousted".