Horse happenings

SW looks back at an eventful year

By Suwitcha Chaiyong
Photos courtesy of www.facebook.com/GarrettPopcorn
TH, AFP, AP, EPA, Post Today, Bangkok Post, GTH, SM True

It’s now about time to say goodbye to the eventful Year of Horse. Before ushering in the Year of Goat, Student Weekly decided to take a look back at some of the highlights in entertainment, sports and pop culture of the past 12 months.

JANUARY

Sporty Style

On January 14, Thailand’s world badminton champion Ratchanok Intanon (May) won the Asian Sporting Icon Award arranged by Fox Sports Asia. The award was the result of voting on Fox Sports Asia’s poll.

Popular Popcorn

The Garrett Popcorn Shop provided the latest snack craze in Bangkok, with long lines of people appearing in Paragon after it the popcorn product was launched on January 29. In Thailand, there are eight flavours on offer for popcorn lovers, and prices range from 90 to 2,300 baht. The Garrett Popcorn Shop originated in Chicago, USA in 1949. Branches of the shop can now be found in 10 countries including Kuwait, Japan, UAE and the UK.

FEBRUARY

Lost in Chiang Mai

After the huge success of the 2012 Chinese movie Lost in Thailand, Chiang Mai University, which was one of the locations used in the movie, started attracting scores of Chinese tourists. Many of the tourists liked to take pictures dressed up in university uniforms, while some even set up tents to camp in the university grounds. According to the president of Chiang Mai University, around 400 to 500 tourists visited the university every day.

Blast from the Past

In early February, Facebook celebrated its 10th anniversary by launching a video feature called Look Back. An American named John Berlin, who recently lost his 21-year-old son, posted a request on YouTube to see his son’s Look Back video because he couldn’t access his son’s Facebook account. After John’s video plea went viral, Facebook granted his request.

MARCH

Red Light for Red Tour

On March 1, tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Red Tour concert sold out in just 10 minutes. Some fans resorted to paying more than 6,000 baht for tickets on the black market. Unfortunately, the concert, which was due to take place on June 9, was cancelled after the coup d’etat.

Twitter Triumph

On March 2, Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres took a star-studded selfie at the Academy Awards ceremony. The selfie became the most re-tweeted tweet of the year, with more than 3.3 million re-tweets. The picture included the celebrities Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Kevin Spacey.

APRIL

Mourning Period

The South Korean Sewol ferry sank on April 16, killing more than 300 people. As the country was in mourning, the three major channels KBS, MBC and SBS, as well as other cable channels, cancelled their regular entertainment programmes. K-pop singers also cancelled or postponed their new single releases and planned performances.

Just Ask

The Ask.fm mobile application suddenly became popular in April, especially among the young. Users enjoyed the application because it allowed them to ask anybody questions without revealing who they are.

MAY

YouTube Thailand

Google officially launched YouTube Thailand on May 19. Since then, the channel owner has been able to receive income from advertising. While this is good news for the owner, users found the advertising annoying. Many programmes were quickly developed to block the YouTube ads.

Dream Team

The Thai female national football team finally made it to the World Cup in Canada, where they had to compete with 24 finalists. The Thai team didn’t win, but they came a respectable fifth in the competition.

JUNE

Bye-bye Beauty

Miss Universe Thailand winner Weluree Ditsayabu (Fai) gave up her title after she was strongly criticised on social media about her body and her inappropriate behaviour. The 22-year-old Fai was accused of being too chubby, while a picture of her smoking a baraku created controversy, even though Fai claimed she was just blowing up a balloon.

Football Food

The latest FIFA World Cup in Brazil was held from June 12 to July 13. One of unforgettable moments of the competition was when Uruguay striker Luis Suarez bit Italy’s defender Giorgio Chiellini during a match. FIFA suspended Suarez for four months, as well as forbidding him to play nine games of the Premier League season. It turned out that this was the third time Suarez had bitten players during matches.

JULY

Addictive Game

In July, popular instant messaging application Line launched a mobile game called Let’s Get Rich. The addictive game fast became a favourite of Thai mobile users of all ages.

Taekwondo Turmoil

Thai national taekwondo competitor Rungrawee Khurasa (Koi), 23, caused controversy when she accused well-known Korean coach Choi Young-seok of punching her several times. The young athlete later publicly apologised to the coach for her accusation and he accepted the apology.

AUGUST

Hormones Heat

Hormones The Series Season 2 started off badly when it was pointed out on Pantip.com that the series had some similarities with the British teen TV drama series, Skins. Songyos Sugmakanan, who directed Hormones The Series Season 1 and produced Season 2, responded by inviting internet users who thought that he copied Skins to debate the issue with him on television.

Frozen for a Good Cause

The Ice Bucket Challenge was created to raise money to treat and increase awareness of a disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The event attracted international attention when American celebrities like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber took the challenge.

Thailand soon got caught up in the Ice Bucket Challenge wave, with celebrities like top actors Aum Patcharapa, Ploy Chermarn and Boy Pakorn taking the challenge to raise money in August. Other celebrities, including 2PM’s Nichkhun, comedian Note Udom and singer J Jetrin, didn’t join the challenge but still chose to donate money to various good causes.

SEPTEMBER

Unfair Fight

The 2014 Incheon Asian Games was hosted by South Korea from September 19 to October 4. Out of 45 countries, China was ranked number one with 151 gold medals, while Thailand came in at 6th place with 12 gold medals.

South Korea (KOR) came second, with 79 gold medals, but the hosts were criticised about perceived unfair judgments in many of the events. There was further controversy when female Indian boxer L. Sarita Devi protested against the result of her semi-final match against a South Korean boxer. She refused to receive her bronze medal, instead putting it around the neck of the South Korean boxer. The International Boxing Association later suspended L. Sarita Diva from all boxing competitions.

Gone Girl

At the end of September, K-pop sensation Girls’ Generation devastated their Sone fan club when S.M. Entertainment announced that Jessica Jung was leaving the group. The company said that they would support Jessica’s solo activities. However, Jessica posted her own version of events on the website of her fashion company, BLANC. The 25-year-old singer said that she was forced to leave the group against her will by the eight other members and by S.M. Entertainment.

OCTOBER

Controversial Campaign

A group of high school students calling themselves Education for Liberation of Siam handed a letter to the Ministry of Education asking them to give up 12 values campaign instigated by the military government. The group said they simply wanted to express their opinions and that they had no political intentions.

In December, the 12 values film created as part of the military’s campaign created further controversy as it featured a child painting a portrait of Adolf Hitler. The film was condemned by many, including the Israeli embassy in Bangkok.

Exo Entertainment

Chinese singer Kris Wu left the 12-member Korean pop group Exo in May, and the group’s Exo-L fans were heartbroken again in October when another gorgeous Chinese Exo member filed a lawsuit against S.M. Entertainment. Both singers allegedly claimed that the company didn’t treat them nicely or fairly.

Exo are hugely popular in Chinese speaking countries. Last year, the group sold more than a million copies of their XOXO album. More recently, they have been busy promoting their new Overdose album.

NOVEMBER

Chicken Little

An unexpected viral video was created when 15-year-old girl Satun girl Laila Khanita left her fried chicken and sticky rice in the basket of her motorbike before going inside a convenience store. While in the store, Laila’s chicken was stolen and she posted a video about it, speaking in her southern accent. The video soon received more than a million views and became so popular that Laila was made a presenter for the mobile company’s advertising. The Bang Meen vendor where Laila bought her chicken also did well out of the publicity, especially when Laila helped out on the stall.

DECEMBER

Fine Film

GTH’s romantic comedy I Fine, Thank You, Love You made 98 million baht after just four days of screenings. The film made an amazing 29 million baht on only its first day of release.

I Fine, Thank You, Love You was directed by Mez Tharatorn, who also directed the 2012 blockbuster ATM Er Rak Error. At the time of writing, the film was ranked the third highest-grossing Thai movie for 2014. In the number one spot was King Naresuan 5, which earned 202 million baht, while GTH’s Kidthung Wittaya (Teacher’s Diary) was in second place, earning 101 million baht.

Dream Team

The Thai national football team received some outstanding attention from their fans and the media when they won a gold medal at the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar. The team was formed by former national footballer and coach Kiatisak Senamuang (Zico).

On December 20, the national team made local sports fans happy once again by winning the AFF Suzuki Cup. The match was exciting, since the score was 0-3 with the Malaysia leading, but the Thai team managed to score two goals 10 minutes before the end of the match. With the total scores from the previous match, the Thai team won the competition with a score of 4-3.

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