Set in the Ayutthaya Kingdom of the 16th century, King Chakra is going about his usual palace duties, granting audiences to his advisers, including his Lord Chamberlain, who is keen to see the king fulfil his royal duty of taking 366 wives, including, hopefully among them, the chamberlain's own daughter. However, the threat of invasion by the King of Honsa has King Chakra pre-occupied. The peace-loving King Chakra at first wants to negotiate for peace, but is unsuccessful, and finds himself forced to go to war to stop the Honsa (Hanthawaddy) invasion. (Source: Wikipedia) ~~ Adapted from the novel "The King of the White Elephant" by Pridi Banomyong (ปรีดี พนมยงค์). Edit Translation
- English
- magyar / magyar nyelv
- עברית / עִבְרִית
- dansk
- Native Title: พระเจ้าช้างเผือก
- Also Known As: Phrachao Chang Phueak , Prajao Changpeuk
- Genres: Military, Historical, Drama, War
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Jaunty, jovial western music as the soundtrack seems an odd choice for going off to war from today's point of view. The pieces do bring energy to their scenes, a different way of accomplishing with a few cameras what takes many (and a lot of editing) today. I kept thinking the extras must have had fun filming this, with all the running around and shouting.
Moments of surprising humour some of which were clearly intentional, like that song quote.
How much history is in this? There were several rulers given the epithet "King of the White Elephant". It's located to a specific year (1540 CE), king (Chatra) and cities (Ayodhya and Kanburi), but the flattening of the two kings into vice and virtue complicates that. Is it fair to read an undercurrent of chauvinistic nationalism into that binary? Residual (maybe even nurtured) trauma from Burmese invasions still lingering, more recent anxieties and difficulties finding their way out through this, or simply fodder for this and other movies? The King of Ayutthaya in 1540 was not all virtue en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairachathirat
Or was 1540 easy, because it was a tidy 400 years earlier? Long enough ago to become part of malleable mythic memory.
I have so many questions =D
Available on Thai PBS and Film Archive Thailand's YT
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