Suriyothai (2001): ** out of ****
Written and directed by Yukol Chalerm Chatri. Starring M.L. Piyapas Bhirombhakdi and Sarunyu Wongkrachang.
by Andy Keast
This film cost nearly 250 million baht, making it the most expensive Thai film ever made. Should I feel guilty for thinking that it's not nearly enough, and that the film seems as if it had been made on the cheap? "The Legend of Suriyothai" plays like one of those overblown Hollywood epics of 1950's, but with half the powder in the keg. There is political intrigue, romance, treachery, betrayal and the rest, though the directing is clumsy and the film feels stapled together. A lot of it is just plain awkward; when the leader of an adjacent enemy nation hears of a sovereign's death midway through the movie, he replies: "I want it conquered by tomorrow."
The film centers on the life of the Thai princess Suriyothai (M.L. Piyapas Bhirombhakdi), who for a time ruled what was then known as the Ayothaya kingdom. In the beginning, she's inexperienced and at times immature, and so it only makes sense that she be put in a position of power, and of course met with the dilemma of sacrificing personal happiness for the good of her country. Nothing we haven't seen before. There are various mythological undertones, though I'm sure I wouldn't do them justice by discussing them.
The narrative breezes along (years pass within minutes), spanning the early 16th century. The Portuguese incursion and wave of small pox are spoken of in the narration and not actually shown. There is some impressive throne room and temple imagery, and the movie contains numerous shots that showcase the fecundity of Thailand. I'm neither an authority on Thailand, nor the Thai language, nor on what the constituents of what makes for "good" acting in a Thai movie. I'll just say that a lot of the characterizations were amateurish and monologues were delivered as if cue cards were hidden in and around the set, Brando style.
There are a number of battle scenes involving the Burmese which I imagine were directed in emulation of Kurosawa (Francis Coppola's Zoetrope company distributed the film in the U.S.), though the "armies" are comprised of a lackluster number of extras that doesn't make for much fearsome fighting. I was reminded of the unconvincing *coup d'état* in Rodriguez's "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," which was made up of the same thirty rioting people, relocated back and forth to opposite ends of a street in an attempt to make it look like thousands.
========== X-RAMR-ID: 37377 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1265202 X-RT-TitleID: 1123463 X-RT-AuthorID: 9883 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews