UberNoodle Suriyothai is a stunning film: Spanning 2 DVDs, and full of political intrigue, history, and glorious battle scenes. There are so many main characters, and all of them command a huge amount of weight, and against movie tradition, there isn't really even a traditional Hero character, even Suriyothai herself playing minor roles in much of the drama.Some have criticized the actress's acting as stiff and wooden, but I thought that Suriyothai was poker-faced intentionally, because she is a Queen after all. Most period pieces from any country have characters like this. I think you have look past her obvious cues and look for the more subtle ones, in order to appreciate her character: passionate about her country and her people, and devoted to her role.In fact there are many cards that other productions would have played, that this film doesn't, and much to its credit it stays away from many of the obvious manipulative narratives that are the mainstays for this genre of film, especially in the west. The film has a historical and legendary basis, and I am unsure exactly how closely it stays to that, but I found the film had the great level of depth and realism that only the best historical films attain.Watching hundreds of extras, alongside elephants, charge into battle, clashing swords and dodging cannon fire, is exhilarating. It's hard to see which army has the upper-hand until the final moments. There appears to have been a conscious decision to not fall for the trappings of making each battle into "hero's battle", so the action often stays away from focusing on main characters, and chooses to present to the viewer the sheer chaos of war.Oh, and it needs to be said: The elephants are awesome.If you are interested in this film, get at least the the 3 hour long version, as it is the closest to the way the film was intended (reportedly it was originally going to be a mini-series). While this longer edit of the film has a lot more political intrigue and dialogue, it that brings with it much more depth to the characters and situations. If you are not part of the "Attention Deficit Generation" bred by Hollow-wood, you can't go wrong with this REAL version.I can see why this film was edited down for the USA release. It is very long, and there is a lot of references and content that is probably assumed knowledge for most Thai people. However, while I can see the logic in removing parts of a film because of cultural barriers, isn't one of the reasons for watching foreign film, to find out more about other cultures? Granted, there is much that went over my head while watching this film, but I have to say that I didn't mind, and now I will find out more if I can about Thailand and its history: The Internet is a wonderful invention.Francis Ford Coppolla has some serious balls to have resold this film BACK to Thailand after he deleted most of it. I doubt he would take a film by Ridley Scott, and slice it to pieces. Faced with that particular situation, I am sure he would be all about "preserving the vision of the artists". It seems to be to be just another example of Hollow-wood being unwilling to let Asian Film compete on its own merits in America, and at least an ingrained xenophobia.Suriyothai is an amazing film. It is an epic that I have not seen bested by any other, and maybe even the mythical long edit of Tsui Hark's Seven Swords would have an near-impossible mission to dethrone it. The sheer size and quality of this production, together with the unique chance that it gives to see Thai history represented so gloriously and elegantly, are reasons enough to hunt down the Thai DVD.

jort38 Good movie with good research on background. Needs some insight on how the history of Siam has been unfolding to appreciate this movie more.Characters in the movie seems actual and believe worthy.Behavior, especially behavior on court, seems very accurate.Impressive movie.This movie hit the tops while on display in Thailand. Intention to create this movie was more to educate young Thai about their history rather than make a top movie. I think both have been achieved.

fred_astaire This is a very appealing film for dreamy people easily stirred by beautifully exotic costumes, some compellingly exotic actresses and a few scenes of relentless brutality. The story is complex (and at times downright bewildering) but fascinating, taking place in many places and involving many characters. We get a heavy dose of intrigue, assassination plots, adultery, regicide and betrayal spanning a dozen or so years in the heart of medieval siam (now thailand). By virtue of just that, the movie is worthwhile. But the sometimes dreary, monotone delivery of lines makes the film feel like it was dragging. Though I don't understand a word of thai, the dialogue seemed annoyingly but frequently devoid of sentiment. With sizable patience and curiosity though, this movie can be a rewarding experience.

chowyunpat The people on this site that complained about this movie being boring, must have seen an entirely different movie, on the contrary, I found it to be an exciting, action packed and culturally enlightening film. It isnt perfect, but It is defintely worth the time and money I spent on the VCD. To the uninformed I saw the original Thai cut of this film esp. when I heard that Francis Ford Coppola was going to release a shorter version of it, because he in all his benevolent wisdom knows better than the director how the picture needed to be edited. Mr Coppola all I want to ask is how come you didnt get rights to release all five hours of footage that was shot, instead of taking out scenes and replacing it with others? Somebody in Thailand should take 40 minutes out of Apocalypse Now and take out entire scenes and replace them with scenes from the additional 3 hours of footage that FFC shot for the movie.All the critics of this movie, esp those who feel it was too long need to think and consider that maybe the reason why: it jumps around in the story, there seems to be little character development, and some of the dialogue seems choppy might be because it was orignally intended after theater release to be shown on Thai television as a 2 part miniseries. My personal opinion is I dont think the film was long enough and in spite of that and the other weak points I mentioned I seldom found it boring. Great care and detail obviously went into period costumes and sets and the scope of this film is tremendous, especially in the intricate battle scenes, which were on par with many of the Hollywood spectacles. I also found a rare peek into Thai culture extremely fasinating, since it so seldom that we get an accurate glimpse of Asian cultures aside from the Japanese and Chinese cultures, and even though those protrayals usually condescending and jingoistic. Many of the same people who complain about this movie had no problem going to see long movies like Dances with Wolves or Braveheart, which too were highly entertaing if historical inaccurate films. I found that even though the dialogue in the final scene was a bit hokey, that it still packed an emotional wallop even knowing the Queen Suriyothai is going to die, not a spoiler folks, because the film opens with her death, there is just something about the sacrifice of one's life for something greater than yourself which is very dramatic and inspiring.The films major weakness is that even though the film is about her, it spends a lot of time on a lot of secondary characters most of which are fairly interesting, I wanted to see more of what made her tick. The whole thing works inspite of this weaknesses. If you like larger than life characters, well choreographed and bloody battle sequences, and some drama and intrigue then you will love this film.