When it premiered again in 2021, “The White Lotus” was a pointy class satire aimed toward skewering high-end tourism and the elite one-percenters keen to pay $9,000 an evening to loosen up. Written and directed by Mike White, the darkly comedian thriller adopted the entitled company and beleaguered workers at an expensive Maui resort over the course of an more and more tense week.
A vacation spot that was presupposed to be a refuge from the world’s issues as an alternative grew to become a microcosm for them, a spot the place the category divide and legacy of American imperialism had been on vivid show. “The White Lotus,” which was filmed its first season on location on the 4 Seasons in Maui, one way or the other made an unique resort look like a poisonous stress cooker. Working there was not simply soul-crushing, it may even kill you.
Season 2, a bed room farce set at a beautiful beachfront resort in Sicily, checked out intercourse, cash and energy. Each installments lampooned the rich and depicted folks dying underneath tragic circumstances in picturesque places. And maybe counterintuitively, each seasons led to a tourism increase within the filming places. Someway, a present that sharply critiqued luxurious journey additionally functioned as a shiny commercial for it.
This contradiction is much more pronounced in Season 3 of “The White Lotus,” which premiered on HBO final month. Set on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand, the most recent installment follows custom by opening with a useless physique. But it surely additionally explores new themes, together with the conflict between Western materialism and Japanese spirituality, notably Buddhism. This season’s fictional White Lotus is understood for its wellness program. Visitors are inspired to place away their telephones at some point of their keep and avail themselves of choices like yoga, meditation and therapeutic massage.
Sam Nivola, Sarah Catherine Hook and Patrick Schwarzenegger in “The White Lotus.” Characters are inspired to place away their telephones for the week.
(Fabio Lovino / HBO)
Hollywood motion pictures and TV reveals are likely to deal with the extra decadent elements of Thai tradition — from the all-night Full Moon Get together to intercourse tourism in Bangkok. The workforce behind “The White Lotus” wished to showcase different sides of the nation.
“Obviously that exists here, but it doesn’t define Thai culture,” government producer David Bernad mentioned in a telephone interview final month from Bangkok, the place the present was having a splashy native premiere attended by its forged, together with Thai-born Okay-pop star Lalisa Manobal, a.okay.a. Blackpink’s Lisa, who stars as a employee on the resort. “What we attempted to do is depict Thailand in an authentic way — the beauty of the people and the culture — in a way that hopefully brings more positive interest back to Thailand.”
The season was made in partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the 4 Seasons, which as soon as once more served as a filming location for the sequence. The federal government of Thailand additionally provided beneficiant tax rebates to the manufacturing. HBO collaborated with a slew of manufacturers to create an array of “White Lotus”-inspired merchandise, together with $98 scented candles, $48 sunscreen, $325 in a single day luggage, $725 clothes and $4.50 flavored espresso creamers. Regardless of its usually darkish themes and cynical tackle humanity, the present clearly has turn out to be an aspirational advertising automobile for manufacturers throughout the spectrum. Why, precisely, is a present about horrible folks behaving badly (and dying) so interesting to those firms?
“I genuinely don’t know the answer. It’s a very weird thing,” Bernad mentioned. “It’s surreal, knowing that the original construction of the show was so intimate and small. For me, it still feels strange that anyone is paying attention.”
Given what a popular culture juggernaut “The White Lotus” has turn out to be, it’s simple to neglect it was conceived as a stopgap — a present that may very well be made rapidly and safely in a single, remoted location throughout the top of the COVID-19 pandemic, when HBO was in determined want of recent programming.
The unique plan was to movie in Australia, the place strict lockdowns helped maintain the pandemic in verify. When that proved too tough, Hawaii grew to become the plain selection. The setting provided gorgeous pure magnificence but in addition wealthy themes to discover, notably American colonialism and the plight of Native Hawaiians.
Equally, Season 2 was nearly set in France however wound up in Sicily after a scouting journey to Taormina, the place a tour information instructed them the legend behind the ornamental moor’s head statues discovered within the area that grew to become a motif within the sequence. “That was the kickoff to Mike wanting to write this bedroom farce season about sexual politics,” Bernad mentioned.
Season 3 was at all times envisioned as an “exploration of Eastern versus Western philosophy,” Bernad mentioned. However Plan A was to movie in Japan, a rustic the place they’d been eager to make one thing for years. Largely as a courtesy to HBO, White and Bernad additionally visited Thailand. (White had destructive associations with Koh Samui particularly as a result of he’d been sequestered on the island after getting eradicated from “The Amazing Race.”)
Thai Okay-pop artist Lisa Manobal is likely one of the stars in “The White Lotus.” Season 3 of the present was at all times envisioned as an “exploration of Eastern versus Western philosophy.”
(Stefano Delia / HBO)
However finally they had been charmed by the nation and its folks. White additionally was struck by a match of inspiration when he got here down with bronchitis whereas within the metropolis of Chiang Mai. He was handled with potent steroids and “hallucinated the entire season,” Bernad mentioned. “Honestly, the next day, we were scouting in the van, and he told me about his dream. It’s basically what we shot — his steroid-induced dream.”
Relocating the present to Thailand, the place greater than 90% of the inhabitants is Buddhist, “allowed us to explore Buddhism as a religion and a philosophy,” Bernad mentioned. One among their inventive objectives was presenting a extra nuanced model of Thai tradition than is typical of Western media. “It’s usually like ‘The Hangover Part II,’ exploiting the darker side of Bangkok. But that’s not what we set out to do,” he mentioned.
One of many characters this season, Piper Ratliff (Sarah Catherine Hook), is a spiritual research main who has dragged her rich Southern household to Thailand in order that she will interview a Buddhist monk for her thesis. Her religious curiosity is baffling to her household, who’re skeptical of the various wellness choices on the resort.
Koh Samui is “like detox island,” a spot well-heeled vacationers come to have interaction in practices they affiliate with Buddhism however are sometimes a mishmash of various religious traditions, mentioned Brooke Schedneck, a spiritual research professor at Rhodes Faculty whose analysis facilities on Buddhism and spiritual tourism in Thailand. “Everyone coming off the plane [in Koh Samui] has their yoga mats,” she mentioned. Locations just like the fictional White Lotus “draw on this idea of Thailand as a Buddhist place but [offer] wellness options that don’t necessarily connect to Buddhism.” (You’d by no means follow yoga in a Buddhist temple, as an example.)
“I think it’s really funny how … most of them are going to this wellness resort, and then they’re like, ‘I don’t want to do wellness. Why do I have to do this?’” Schedneck mentioned of the resort’s spoiled company. ”It reveals the individualistic, Western mindset of ‘I want to do whatever I want.’”
But the contradiction between East and West is probably not as stark as one would possibly assume. Some Westerners wrongly assume that as a result of Buddhism is so prevalent in Thailand, it means individuals are much less keen on materials issues. “The idea that Buddhism can encompass and encourage wealth is something that’s difficult for people to grasp,” Schedneck mentioned.
For the 4 Seasons, “The White Lotus” has been an undeniably highly effective advertising software — regardless of the demise and dissolute habits that goes on on the resorts within the sequence. The formal partnership, launched forward of Season 3, means the corporate can use “White Lotus” IP and do branded activations, together with poolside cabanas and viewing events, at its resorts. The 4 Seasons additionally lately introduced a 20-day tour through which company will journey aboard the corporate’s non-public jet to the present’s three filming places.
As a part of its partnership with HBO and “The White Lotus,” the 4 Seasons is that includes meals and experiences impressed by the present. (Courtesy of 4 Seasons Resorts)
A poolside villa on the 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui, featured within the present. (Courtesy of 4 Seasons Resorts)
As a part of its advertising analysis, the corporate conducts month-to-month surveys with high-net-worth people. The questionnaire now consists of questions on “The White Lotus.” Of the millennials surveyed, 88% had been conscious of each manufacturers, and 71% mentioned they had been extremely more likely to go to properties featured within the sequence.
“We know that if we pick the right show, and if the hotel has been featured in the right way, it has a huge business impact, and it’s the best PR we can do,” mentioned Marc Speichert, government vp and chief business officer on the 4 Seasons. He’s already seeing a surge of on-line curiosity within the Koh Samui property: Visits to the location are up practically 600% over the identical time final 12 months.
“Everybody knows that this is obviously a fiction. The White Lotus isn’t the Four Seasons, per se. It just uses the hotel as a backdrop. The PR that we’re getting is about how incredible the hotel looks,” Speichert mentioned. (He mentioned that characters like Belinda, performed by Natasha Rothwell in Seasons 1 and three, and Valentina, performed by Sabrina Impacciatore in Season 2, mirror the sort of people that do work on the 4 Seasons.)
Earlier seasons of “The White Lotus” led to a surge of holiday makers to Maui and Sicily. In Thailand, the place tourism is a significant business, an inflow can be welcome. The nation noticed 35 million international guests final 12 months, in accordance with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which goals to extend that quantity to 40 million in 2025.
“Thailand acting as the setting of ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 allows us to reach a truly global audience, and offers a unique opportunity to showcase Thailand’s breathtaking landscapes, rich culinary scene, vibrant culture, natural beauty and, most importantly, the people and the warmth of Thai hospitality,” mentioned Chompu Marusachot, director of the TAT’s New York workplace.
A rise in guests can be an financial boon for Thailand, however there may be additionally concern concerning the potential environmental influence extra guests would have on the nation, notably Koh Samui, which already struggles with a scarcity of recent water and an overflowing landfill, in accordance with stories from native residents. Different Hollywood productions provide cautionary tales: “The Beach,” launched in 2000, helped flip Maya Bay on the island of Ko Phi Phi Leh into a significant vacationer vacation spot that obtained as many as 5,000 guests a day. Due to the ensuing air pollution, an estimated 80% of the coral within the bay was destroyed. Authorities ultimately closed the seashore for a number of years and now prohibit entry. HBO didn’t present remark when requested concerning the environmental influence of filming “The White Lotus” in Koh Samui.
However for Bernad, making the sequence in Thailand taught him the significance of treading frivolously. “You have to come in with a humility that you’re not imposing your way of production,” he mentioned. “You’re learning from the local crew and producers, and adjusting to their needs.” Good recommendation for producers — and vacationers — alike.
