February 23, 2004
Legend of Suriyothai
After seeing the trailer, I was pretty psyched about seeing this thai-made, coppola-presented, historical drama. It had battle scenes and a woman who puts on armor.
The truth is that it feels two hours and 24 minutes long. And you know what, Suriyothai is barely in it.
There are some nice battle scenes. This film is beautiful. The settings, costumes, scenery, photography: all very beautiful. The characters? meh.
The sense i got from the film was that it was all very historical. Each character was simply fulfilling his destiny according to what people think went on in a couple turbulent decades in 16th century Siam.
What I liked a lot was the palace intrigue. I love palace intrigue movies. And there are some questionable royals who make me glad that we don't live in a monarchy.
The most interesting character, I think, was Prince Tien who is also not really in the movie much. And why did they not really delve into Tien and Suriyothai's relationship? There's a lot of loaded baggage there that I would have wanted to explore.
You know, you won't see me review a film I don't like very often. But, I guess I'll just say if you don't have to see this film, don't.
Oh yeah. This movie has lots of elephants. And dead children.
ps-I see the original Thai version is 5 hours long. I can't imagine it.
Posted by joel at February 23, 2004 09:14 PM