- 好电影从来得不到媒体推荐，真是可惜。
THE LEGEND OF SURIYOTHAI
Funded by the Thai royal family, in part to redress the fuzzy history in 1999’s Anna and the King, The Legend of Suriyothai is written and directed by royal Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol. An epic of the founding of Thailand, the film portrays the 16th-century life of Queen Suriyothai, a kind of Thai Boadicea who rode into battle to protect her husband, King Thienracha. The production details are spectacular, from the surreal ritual dances accompanying the film’s numerous beheadings to the painted war elephants (although jousting atop an elephant can look unfortunately like dueling bumper cars). As fans of recent Thai horror films know, the country’s audiences have an immense appetite for Grand Guignol, indulged here with severed heads, throat slashings and a particularly vivid rendering of the symptoms of smallpox. But despite the exotic visuals, Western viewers may have trouble digesting a two-and-a-half-hour epic more in the tradition of Thucydides than De Mille. The only passion shown onscreen is that of the villainess Lady Srisudachan, who poisons her way to the top; otherwise the characters are flat creatures of duty, and the film is more a tale of the collective will of a state than of the rugged individuals behind it. (John Patterson)
鐜涢泤