Kunpan: Legend of the WarLord
Director: Thanit Jitnukul
Year: 2002
Starring: Watchara Tangkaprasert (Kunpan), Bongkot Kongmalai (Pim)
Time: 115 minutes
I watched this film from the director of
Bang Rajan sometimes in fascination, sometimes in confusion and sometimes
in dismay. It is a total mishmash of good and bad scenes. In the end it felt
like a good idea gone bad – but bad in a very strange and peculiar manner.
Though epic in its scope, it still manages to plod at times with a plot out
of a Thai soap opera that just diminishes everything around it. The film
is based on a classic story and so perhaps to the Thai people this story
takes on a special meaning, but as it plays out here it has very little emotional
impact until the final scene reaches out and grabs you by the throat. The
main fault with enjoying the film is the character of Kunpan – are we suppose
to sympathize with him or detest him? In theory he is the hero of the film,
but his occasional repulsively moral acts make it difficult to care a lot
about his fate.
In the 1700’s Kunpan’s father is a highly regarded warrior, but he makes
the mistake of bringing too many oxen to the king and it’s off with the head
– and Kunpan and his mother run for their lives. He is brought up in a temple
and gains great strength and a few magical powers. When he is a young man
he returns to his home as a monk – but one look at the ravishing and soft-spoken
Pim and he quickly gives up his calling and marries her. Apparently though
in his days as a monk he stored up more chestnuts than his wife could handle
and the morning after their wedding night he is on the dock making hay with
one of the servant girls. Huh? This is a totally bizarre moment – one second
he is deeply in love with Pim and the next knocking knees with a woman in
broad daylight. Pim seems annoyed but understanding. Other bizarre episodes
continue throughout the film.
The King of Thailand (the same one who executed his father) hears about Kunpan’s
return and takes the advice of the rival for Pim’s heart and sends Kunpan
off to fight his enemy in the north. The rival hopes that Kunpan will find
death but instead he defeats the enemy and wins himself a second wife. Pim
seems annoyed but understanding when he returns home with the wife in tow.
The King is an irritable person though and Kunpan is soon banished off into
the jungle – where of course he finds yet a third wife – a cutie pie who
bears him (well not exactly bears) a demon fetus that can fly through the
air and kill whomever Kunpan wants. Kunpan returns and is soon back in the
good graces of the King – for about fifteen minutes until he again
gets annoyed with Kunpan and this time Kunpan goes off to jail – for many
years – but oddly no one ever seems to age much. Throughout the film this
triangle between Kunpan, Pim and the rival drive the film – but where it
is driving it is difficult to discern. The cinematography is fine, the sets
are excellent, there are a few big battle scenes (but very poorly executed
considering the director did so much better in Bang Rajan) – but the stilted
acting from the two men and a weak story line makes this film feel like a
lost opportunity and very silly at times.
The Thai DVD has English subs, the VCD does not.
My rating for this film: 6.0
Reviewed by Simon Booth
Kunpan - Legend of the War Lord is a legend about
a warlord named Kunpan, happily enough. As a child, Kunpan's father is killed
by the somewhat vicious king, and Kunpan would be killed too if his mother
didn't whisk him away and hide him in a monastery. At the monastery, Kunpan
is educated in the arts of war by an elderly monk and grows to be a good
looking young monk himself. But then he falls in love with a gorgeous local
girl and quits the monastery to marry her. To everyone's surprise and disappointment,
he turns out to be something of a bastard who is led through life by his
dick.
At least, that's how the first half of the movie
presents him, since it lavishes far too much time on his bedroom antics, though
since several extremely attractive young actresses are also involved I cannot
complain too much about this attention. Well, actually yes I can - it was
frankly rather dull, beautiful as the ladies may be. So the first hour of
the movie is pretty much a bust, but then things come out of the bedroom
and the movie starts to take a different and altogether darker route. Kunpan
is pretty unlikeable in the first hour, but in the second he turns downright
evil. Still totally unlikeable, but altogether more interesting.
The second half of the movie is pretty cool, full
of violence, evil and black magic. Less shagging, more war. It's still not
classic cinema, but it's much more engaging. The movie seems very similar
to some other Thai movie I can't put my finger on, at least thematically.
It may have starred the same lead actress even, as I've certainly seen her
before (did I mention she was cute?). It's another movie where the men are
all immature bastards but it's the women who suffer as a result. Kunpan is
a dark hero, which sometimes makes it difficult to really be concerned by
his problems. It's only because his enemies are that much worse that you
want him to prevail.
Kunpan isn't a great movie, and for some of its
runtime it outright sucks. It has some great moments to compensate though,
and is overall quite watchable. The Thai DVD is pretty lousy - washed out
non-anamorphic image that is much too dark, but ok sound and subtitles at
least. It doesn't get very high recommendations, but I don't recommend *not*
watching it either
