Review of Bang Rajan (2000) by Rinchen T — 04 Apr 2011

Based upon historical events when a rural village in Siam continually repelled an invading Burmese army in the 18th century, this story is the Thai equivalent to The Alamo and received an unprecedented 11 awards at the Thai film festival upon its release.

I think it must've been a very quiet year. Little more than a series of bare chested sword and musket battle sequences strung together with some unsophisticated attempts at emotional manipulation and soap opera characterisation, Bang Rajan follows the formula of battle sequence, weeping and a-wailing over the dead, corny love scene, macho posturing and repeat.

And repeat. And repeat. There is no attempt at setting a historical context to the events, no mention of the political climate and precious little to even give any background to any of the characters.

All the Burmese are a bunch of evil, murdering backstabbers and all of the Siamese are noble, saintly heroes and it just feels like an animated war memorial that's all propaganda and no depth. The director shows some ability to represent the battlefield (despite some rather ropey visual effects) but little clue as to how to make the audience actually care who wins.