Suriyothai
Director: Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol
Year: 2001
Starring: M.L. Piyapas Bhirombhakdi (Queen
Suriyothai), Johnny Anfone, Marisa Anita, Sorapong Chatri , Siriwimol Charoenpura,
Ronrittichai Khanket
Time: 210 minutes (Thai version)
Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol has been one of
Thailand’s premiere directors since his debut film in 1972 with “It Comes
with the Darkness”. A distant member of the royal family, he studied film
at UCLA and has directed some thirty films of which “The Elephant Keeper”
and “Kong” have met with some international recognition. Nothing that he
had done though was nearly on the same scale as Suriyothai. This is an
enormous film detailing 20 years of history on a grand colorful canvass
– it took 2 years to make and used over 2,000 extras, some 80 elephants
and 70 horses in the production. A painful attention to historical detail
was sought and the film revels in the magnificent costumes, the ornate
decorations, the stunning temples and palaces, the elegant décor
and the formal manner in which people composed themselves at that time.
From this perspective, Suriyothai is an extremely impressive achievement
and is worth seeing just for the spectacle alone.
In other ways though the film fails on some basic
levels. In the first cut the running time came in between seven and eight
hours and the director had to pare it down to about 3 ½ hours and
perhaps something was lost in doing so (of course Coppolo is now cutting
it even further for a possible US release). For all of its rich detail,
there is little attention paid to developing the characters beyond simplistic
notions of honourable or dishonourable. Everyone is basically a cardboard
character and there is absolutely no sense of intimacy brought into their
lives. As such, the film never pulls you in emotionally – it plays out
more like a very interesting big budget recreation on the History Channel
as the narrator describes the unfolding of historical events and they are
re-enacted on screen. But it is wonderful pageantry – the charging of the
elephants, the storming of fortresses, the regal barges floating down the
river, the palace crowd scenes are all terrific stuff.
I would actually love to see this on the big screen
and actually would love to see the entire 8 hours (though not at one sitting!)
to see if more character development takes place - and I am certainly curious
to know what was edited out. The film is not perhaps the easiest to follow
(in particular to those with little knowledge of Thai history such as myself)
as there are many characters introduced, many factions to keep track of
and simply trying to understand the relationship of everyone is a bit taxing
but doable. There is also a sudden transition in which all the young actors
are replaced by older ones and Suriyothai seems to have aged 20-years in
a four year jump.
In general, the film tells the tale of the monarchy
over a period of 20-years and it is filled with intrigue, struggles for
power and betrayal – sort of a Thai “I, Claudius”. The film begins in the
year of 1528 and at the time the Kingdom was divided into two areas that
were ruled by brothers from the Suphannaburi dynasty and all was quite
peaceful. One ruled in the north in Pitsanulok and the other ruled in Ayothaya
to the south. Princess Suriyothai is from another line of the royal family
– the Phra Ruang dynasty – and she is in love with a distant cousin – Lord
Pirin. She is chosen though by the Crown Prince Tien to be his wife and
she becomes his loyal and able supporter and advisor. Within four years
though the royal family begins to unravel – the death of both brothers
in a short time span leads to the country being lead by a small boy and
Prince Chai Raja (Prince Tien’s brother) leads a coup to bring the entire
country under his rule. After his wife dies in childbirth though, he takes
a consort – Princess Srisudachan – from the royal line of U-thong. This
is when the film starts getting quite intriguing as she conspires to bring
her family back into possession of the throne and will stop at nothing
to do so – and has a small group of female assassins to do her dirty work.
Prince Tien and Suriyothai are seen as obstacles and she sends ninja like
killers (Khmer assassins) to eliminate them.
In reality, there is very little known about the
life of Suriyothai – basically only her heroic death (which is where the
film actually begins) has been recorded – so the director admits that much
of the screenplay is fictional though I believe much of the historical
background is based on fact. It’s an interesting film – never particularly
gripping or involving – but far from dull as it moves at a rapid pace –
and it has some great moments and heroic characters.
The film is available on Thai DVD and VCD with
subtitles.
My rating for this film: 7.5
