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[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “When Technology Becomes a Tool to Erase History: Prabda Yoon’s Transmissions of Unwanted Pasts” by Lorence Lozano

Prabda Yoon (director), Transmissions of Unwanted Pasts, 2019. 24 min.

Prabda Yoon returned in 2019 with the short film Transmissions of Unwanted Pasts, following his two feature length films. His debut, Motel Mist (2016), presents intersecting vignettes that employ lurid and unsettling scenarios to probe deeper questions of power dynamics and the surreal edges of modern Bangkok life. In contrast, Someone from Nowhere (2017) follows an injured man who suddenly appears at a young woman’s condominium and claims the apartment as his own. Both films have competed at international film festivals, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival.

In Transmissions of Unwanted Pasts, Yoon explores the use of technology, particularly Thailand’s satellite known as THEOS, in the fabrication and erasure of historical events.

The film opens by recounting the invention of Thailand’s first satellite in 2008, THEOS, developed by the French aerospace industry at a cost of 180 million dollars. Designed with a lifespan of five years, the satellite nevertheless remained in operation when, in 2018, the Thai military government signed a contract to develop THEOS II, costing approximately 240 million dollars. This new satellite was intended for “water management, disaster management, national security, monitoring pollution and natural hazards, as well as urban and economic development.” After presenting these historical facts, the narrative shifts to 2018, where the original THEOS continues to operate well beyond its intended lifespan. The film, however, includes a disclaimer stating that it is not based on THEOS.

What is particularly striking is the film’s deployment of technology as an integral narrative force, exposing the irony and bureaucratic power relations between authority figures and technical professionals. As the satellite begins to malfunction, the narrative centres on Pang (Kamolsuang Aksharanugraha), a young satellite engineer tasked with investigating the strange images transmitted by the system.

As Pang’s colleagues discuss fortune telling, a contradiction emerges that unsettles the film’s ostensibly scientific register. Yet through these conversations, Pang arrives at an insight that helps her approach the satellite’s anomalies. While scientific rationality and technological advancement form the firm foundation of the narrative, the film does not neglect the complexity of beliefs deeply embedded within society. Here, Yoon interrogates two contested epistemologies, juxtaposing technological progress with traditional forms of divination.

Although the camera frames the characters within a carefully constructed mise en scène, the film relies heavily on dialogue to advance the narrative. From this point, the story grows increasingly compelling as the military assumes control over the satellite’s malfunctions.

“I think the satellite’s sending us images from various periods of the past,” Pang says.

Indeed, when questioned by the military, she explains that the images range from King Mongkut’s 1868 prediction of a solar eclipse to the 1688 Siege of Bangkok during the Ayutthaya Kingdom. The dates become progressively more charged: 2014, 2010, 2008, 1992, 1976, 1973, until she is instructed to stop at 1932.

At first, Pang’s account may appear to be a simple recitation of years. On closer examination, however, the sequence reveals a deliberate structure. These moments include the 2010 Red Shirt protests against the government of then Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the 1932 revolution that marked the beginning of democracy in Thailand, and the 1976 Thammasat Massacre, in which student led protests erupted in response to the return of former dictator Thanom Kittikachorn.

As the satellite transmits images from these historical moments, the military orders Pang to erase them from the system, ensuring that no copies remain accessible to the public or to anyone beyond their control. She is rendered powerless within a space dominated by authority, one that serves only its own interests. Her supervisor (Gandhi Wasuvitchayagit) offers no resistance, merely observing as Pang is threatened and coerced into erasing traces of history.

Yoon presents a vision of technological horror by subverting technology’s presumed neutrality and transforming it into an instrument for the fabrication and obliteration of historical truth. Even more unsettling is the manner in which science and technology become mechanisms for transmitting collective amnesia in service of the fantasies of the present.

When censorship operates at the margins of figures like Pang, it exposes a deeper question: are we truly progressing, or are we being lulled into compliance by imperial visions of the present that deliberately efface historical memory? As the fortune teller reminds Pang, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

^{How to cite: Lozano, Lorence. “When Technology Becomes a Tool to Erase History: Prabda Yoon’s Transmissions of Unwanted Pasts.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 23 Dec. 2025, chajournal.com/2025/12/23/unwanted.}

Lorence Lozano is a film critic based in the Philippines. They have contributed to various student short films as a script consultant. Their interests lie at the intersections of gender, politics, and temporalities within Southeast Asian cinema. [All contributions by Lorence Lozano.]