chp9995

Movies with sensual theme have not been made very well made until "JanDara". Unfortunately, the movie has been cut, chopped, diced and sliced heavily by the censorship committee that the real impact of the story was loosened somewhat. However, the plot by itself is still entertaining enough to deserve a viewing. The film was very well crafted but will some minor flaws; acting seems inconsistent among actors as is film editing. There's nothing new in the cinematography area but the music is excellent, though some sections do have resemblances to "Bad Land", a movie made in the 70's. Despite the movie's retro-setting, I do not particularly like the use of sepia-toned in the film because it distances the characters from the audiences.

The story line is very well combed and has a few plot twists along the way to its climactic revelation. The dark side of the Thai cultures were exploited with added flavoring, though some might argue that it's totally fictitious, the story could very well be true. Sexuality is a taboo in Thai culture, and could be a little awkward for Thais to be absorbed by the movie, but the film could do very well in the 'art house and international' category. Just leave the film as director intended.

A classic love tragedy story. Most people would have a feeling what the ending will be, but the real joy of watching this movie is listening to the beautiful poetic dialogues. You could almost close your eyes watching it and still be moved. This kind of novel is very difficult to translate to film since you have to provide visual clues to the audiences that must not be too obvious or too abstract. I think that the director (Cherd Songsri) did quite well using retro-style of film making. Sometimes the actors might seem insignificant compare to the dialogious storyline, but that might be the best way to translate such a beautiful writing to such a beautiful film.

Great scenes, great acting, great research, and above all great directing. This movie is a piece of history by itself. However, in my humble but honest opinion, "Suriyothai" due to the overwhelming and often contradict historical facts, seems all too confusing. There were so much informations to be consumed within 3 hours that the plot lost its luster somewhat. There were so many characters that played significant roles, too important to be left out from the story, but it put burden on the audiences' mind game. The timeline, which were at an accelerated pace in the beginning seem to slowed down towards the end without any clue to the audiences.

Overall, I do admire the effort of the production team to have delivered such an impressive movie under understandably many many constraints; physically, mentally, historically, culturally, etc.. During the course of the movie, I could almost felt that the director might want a different version than what was shown. If it's true, please give us your 'director's cut' version when possible. Again, I respectfully salute you, the director for (almost) singlehandedly created such a masterpiece in Thai film history, but please re-edit it before going international.