Armand
history page. beautiful show. preoccupation for nuances. huge project , romantic slices, plots, love, heroic scenes, battles and story of a queen as reflection of sacrifice spirit and love for country. sure, it is more a subject of Thai pride. but, in same measure, an admirable work. at first step but this step is remarkable. for measure, for images, for nuances of tale, for science to create a window to Orient far from basic recipes of exoticism. it is a mega - production who preserves its identity. a testimony of charming potential of South Asian cinema to give a different product by Bollywood . and the fact is not insignificant. portrait of Thai XVI century, it is a beautiful jewelery, really impressive for each its part.
Nai Pitim
I can understand why this film received rave reviews in Thailand and among the Thais in the US. The sets, the costumes, the battle scenes are exquisite. There are many scenes that show activity of daily living in Thailand in the olden days. Many of those are quite rare these days. It's very good from a historical and cultural point of view. It's the best efforts in Thai cinematography I've seen thus far and much better than a lot of junk that comes out of Hollywood.However, as an entertainment, it's quite lacking. I agree with some comments here that the acting is wooden and the story line disjointed. I do think it will do very well on the History Channel, or as a television series. In time, I hope acting, story lines, and editing in Thai movies will improve and deserve a second look.
birck
I was not impressed. Whether because of FFC's re-editing, or because of the basic film, I can't tell. The acting is flat, which may be a peculiarity of Thai drama and/or film-making, but the flatness makes the emotional dynamics hard to pick up on. The characters are difficult to keep straight; and the main point of the story-the self-sacrifice of the main character-is there, but not emphasized enough to give the film any real narrative drive. Perhaps it was done that way because the principal audience-Thais at home in Thailand-was assumed to know all the characters and be familiar with the story?I have seen and appreciated films dealing with essential historical legends of Asian countries, so I know that it can be done effectively, and in such a way that non-asians can "get" the story. I know I'm supposed to be impressed by the money spent on it, the great costumes, the majesty of the story, and-yes-the elephants! But, at bottom, the story simply isn't told here in a way that delivers much of a punch for me.
PiranianRose
Here is an awesome big budget period war movie from Thailand with exotic locations, exquisite costume, and exciting visuals--all this is great of course, but it can't hide the lack of focus in this movie. Every few minutes, there comes a "break" in the plot, where the pictures fades and a new section is shown. There are too many of these breaks, which do not have even transitions. Looking further at the plot, we can see that Suriyothai is absent from most of the movie, so the beginning narrative remark that "this is the story about the woman that sacrificed for her country" does not hold. Instead, this is about the transfer of power from people to people during the few decades of Suriyothai's life. We could even take Suriyothai OUT OF THE STORY entirely and it would not change much of its purpose.Overall, Suriyothai is no extraordinary film. It has a great budget, which makes it look lovely to the eye, but it lacks a heart.I did see the cut version [142 min], which I consider a misfortune on any occasion.
AD
