A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Thai Film "Do You Love Me?" (Rak Nu Mai)

Abstract

This study employed a qualitative research approach through textual analysis in conjunction with Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework in order to examine the text, discourse practice, and sociocultural practice represented in the film. The findings reveal that the film constructs four major discourses: (1) the discourse of alternative family, (2) the discourse of constrained choices, (3) the discourse of humanization, and (4) the discourse of negotiating power through ritual. At the textual level, the film reconstructs the meaning of “family” from a biologically and legally defined institution grounded in monogamous ideology toward a “functional family”. At the level of discourse practice, the film reflects gender oppression and economic constraints that render marginalized individuals unable to exercise genuine freedom of choice. Through language, cinematic signs, and social rituals, the film negotiates the legitimacy of non-normative relationships and alternative ways of living. At the level of sociocultural practice, the film reveals tensions between dominant family ideology and the lived realities of marginalized people within the economic, legal, and moral conditions of contemporary Thai society. Ultimately, the film functions not merely as entertainment, but as a discursive space in which new meanings of family, gender, and humanity are produced, negotiated, and redefined in Thailand’s transitional society.