Film Queen Of Langkasuka

[Leanne Wittlin]

QueenHijau (The Green Queen) of Pattani faces overthrow by the rebel Prince Rawai, who is allied with pirate captain Black Raven. The pirates attempt to capture a huge cannon built by Dutchman Janis Bree and Chinese inventor Lim Kiam, but the Dutch ship carrying the cannon blows up and the cannons sink into the sea.

Meanwhile, an orphaned sea gypsy boy named Pari (meaning "stingray") lies in a fishing village which is constantly under attack by Black Raven's raiding parties. The boy, gifted in the magical art of Dulum, is taken by his uncle Anyar to learn the magical ways of the ocean from White Ray. However, the sage refuses to teach the boy. Nevertheless, Pari is soon able to communicate with the marine life. He grows into manhood and fights against Black Raven's pirates.

The local ruler, Queen Hijau, wants her own large cannon and seeks out Lim Kiam, whom she finds is living in the sea gypsy village. She sends away her sisters, Princess Biru (The Blue Princess) and Princess Ungu (The Purple Princess). They are under the protection of the queen's loyal commander, the fierce silat exponent Lord Yarang.

Yarang comes under attack at the village by Black Raven's. Pari helps fight off the pirates, and Yarang escapes. Princess Ungu was thought to have been killed, but she was rescued by Pari and taken to White Ray's remote island.

A romance develops between Ungu and Pari, but Ungu is intended to marry the Prince of Pahang, an important ally of Langkasuka. Pari himself is still tortured by memories of the death of his childhood sweetheart at the hands of Black Raven's men.

Eventually, all the forces - the rebel prince, the pirates, the ocean sorcerers, the queen and the princesses - battle for the sunken cannon. During this battle, Black Raven uses a pair of whales to tow a raft with a heavy cannon into range of the castle walls. Pari - previously presumed to be dead - responds by rising from the ocean, standing on the back of a manta ray. He calls to the whales who slip their bonds and breach, landing on and destroying Black Raven's raft

Queens of Langkasuka, which went into production in 2005, was at first called Queens of Pattani, but the name was changed to avoid political connections to the South Thailand insurgency and Pattani separatism, and to tie the story in with the legend of Langkasuka.

The film premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Market to mixed reviews.[2] Derek Elley of Variety said the film lacked focus and at 133 minutes was too long.[1] Maggie Lee of The Hollywood Reporter was more upbeat, praising the sumptuous costume design and action sequences, but also said the film was too long.[3]

Based on the reception from the industry press, studio Sahamongkol Film International pushed for a shorter version of the film. The film's August 2008 release in Thai cinemas was postponed until October, with the director citing Thailand's unstable political atmosphere.[4]

A boost of confidence was given though, when the film was scheduled for the Venice Film Festival, where it would play in a special out-of-competition midnight screening.[5] Queens of Langkasuka was also the "gala opening" film for the 2008 Bangkok International Film Festival.[6]

Well that was ambitious. I guess this is what we can say about visionary director Nonzee Nimbutrs film Queens of Langkasuka. We arent going to call this film by its western release title Tsunami Warrior because the mentioning of tsunamis right now makes me very sad. But back to Mr. Nibutrs very ambitious film, if for some unknown reason Nonzee Nimbutr were to have called me up during the planning stages of his epic movie, I wouldve read his script and probably recommended that he be just a tad less epic and a little less ambitious. Far be it for me to stifle a mans vision and his creativity, but this is what I wouldve recommended.

Lim Kium (Jakkrit Phanichphatikram) is the assistant to a Dutch weapons master when the ship carrying the masters amazing super cannons is ambushed by pirates and destroyed with the cannons descending to the bottom of the sea and the Dutchman dying with his creations. Lim Kium survives the explosion and also rescues a young boy named Pari in the process. Hell if I know where that boy came from.

Paris uncle wants the young boy to learn the secrets of the martial art of du lum since the boy seems to have an innate ability for the craft, but du lum master White Ray (Sorrapong Chatree) can feel the Dark Side in this one and refuses to train him because he fears that the powers will be used for destruction. Whatever old man, the uncle trains the boy himself.

So this boy grows up (Ananda Everingham) and uses his powers to help his rebel uncle fight this Evil Prince, his right hand man the evil Dul Lum master Black Raven and their host of evil pirates. Across town this same Evil Prince is attempting to conquer the kingdom of Langkasuka led by queen Haiju (Jarunee Suskawat) with help from her daughters, I think, Princess Ungu (Anna Ris) and Princess Biru (Jacqueline Apithanonon). Princess Ungu, a righteous warrior in her own right, is upset because

shes is being forced into marriage of alliance with Prince Pahang (Jesdaporn Poldhee) even though hes really nice and honorable dude. Leading the forces of Langkasuka is the mighty warrior Lord Jahang who sports a gold mask to hide his scars after taking one for the team a few years back. I think he and Princess Biru dig each other but shes royalty and hes the help so you know how those things are.

These evil pirates dont appreciate the rebels killing them so they strike back hard at the rebels village killing everybody, even the kids, stealing the women, raping them and then tossing them into the sea. Not cool. One of these women wouldve been Paris beautiful bride. Hes really angry now. And just as White Ray predicted, considering he was using his gifts to cause a ruckus, the ruckus has come back on him and now the darkness is taking over.

A WHOLE lot of other stuff is going on but somehow Princess Ungu and Pari the warrior get stuck on the island of White Ray during monsoon season and love will kind of blossom. In a way. White Ray has to help Pari conquer the blackness and accept the light, Langkasuka is under attack, the warriors of Langkasuka will take to the skies its complicated and a Big Blue Whale will save us all. Or something. Im not completely sure.

True enough, Queens of Langkasuka possesses about as convoluted a narrative as any movie Ive ever seen, but like I said earlier its not so convoluted to the point of being completely incomprehensible, but considering how the screenwriters took such great pains to attempt to link all of the actions and the virtual army or characters in some sort of way, if you blink you are going to definitely miss something that was probably important. This guy is related to that guy who is this guys nephew which explains why that guy is a traitor to this guy who is that guys father. Its a lot like that only way more jumbled up. And for a movie thats an action adventure for the most part, the focus should probably be on the action and the adventure and less on trying to decipher the complex family tree structure that is infused in this story.

Its too bad because the action and the adventure is actually pretty good. Theres lots of martial arts action, some ninjas drop in to party for a little while, theres plenty of explosions and killings and murders and stingray surfing. Yes, the movie is derivative of a few timeless classics that came before it, and this also doesnt do it any favors, but for what is, as far as the action on screen goes, its not too bad.

The last issue is that we had the misfortune of watching the English dub which is simply awful. It appears that the Thai language has a completely different intonation than the English language so to match the lip sync there are these unnatural gaps and pauses in the way the voice actors had to speak. For example, instead of saying Dont make me kill you!, the voice actors to make it lip sync would have to say Dont make me kill you, and its like that throughout the entire movie which was a little distracting.

Still, I kind of liked Queens of Langkasuka. Its an unwieldy convoluted mess, thats for sure, but there is arguably enough action, mayhem and swashbuckling to counter this convolution overload. Emphasis on the word arguable

The golden age of Pattani started during the reign of Ratu Hijau (The Green Queen), who came to the throne in 1584. She was succeeded by Ratu Biru (The Blue Queen), followed by Ratu Ungu (The Purple Queen) and finaly, Ratu Kuning (The Yellow Queen).

Ratu Hijau ruled for 32 years and provided the stability that enabled Pattani to emerge as a centre of high-quality works of music, dance, drama, and handicraft. Pattani also became a major trade entrepot for Malay, Chinese, Siamese, Persians, Indians, Arabs, Portuguese, and Japanese merchants. It was also where the Dutch and English East India Company officials conducted business.

But Pattani had to continuously guard against constant threats by the Siamese. During the time it flourished in economic and military strength, the kingdom was mighty enough to fight off four major Siamese invasions.

By the late 17th century, however, Pattani began to decline and in 1786, Siam finally succeeded in its invasion of the state. Pattani then became absorbed into the Siamese kingdom, with its last ruler deposed in 1902.

The film also attempted to include connections with the legend of Langkasuka, although, historically, the timelines of Langkasuka and Pattani did not overlap. The reign of the Pattani queens took place centuries after the decline of the Langkasuka, which peaked in the 6th and 7th centuries.

At the age of 15, Ratu Kuning was betrothed to the king of Mardelong (modern day Phatthalung), a vassal state of Ayuthya (Siam), north of Pattani. The king called, Okphaya Dca was later discovered to be an oppressive ruler, who was also a gambler and womanizer.

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