Viewed on 11th April 2009
This time around, I am alone in watching the movie and it is a story from our neighbouring country, Thailand. It was about a nation named Langkasuka, located on the northern part of present Malaysia, which was ruled by a woman and her sisters during the 16th century or so. They were typically Malays in outlook but they spoke Siam (I once had this feeling went the last time I’ve visited Bangkok last year, Malay looking but cannot speak Malay, it was weird).
The storyline goes along love, magic and war. The state of Langkasuka were given two large artillery guns from the Dutch but the ship bringing it was sunk after a daring attack by the pirates. The pirates tried to retrieve them from the sea bottom but it was guarded by “magic” obor-obor.
They were also a group of sea gypsies living at the nearby island to the Langkasuka state. They helped the state by fending off attacks by the pirates against the state. In this group of Gypsies, came the hero of the story that was quite an “eye-candy”. He tried to learn the magical art of “Du-Lum”, an art that involved the sea creatures und so weiter. He got married to Bintang and one day Bintang was killed by the pirates and thrown into the sea. That made him “mad” and proceeded by learning the art of Du-Lum, the wrong way from the Du-Lum master on an island somewhere in South China Sea.
One of the surviving artillery guns designers stayed for years with the Sea Gypsies. This Chinese guy was eventually being captured the pirates and helped to them to built a few small powerful cannons. He was saved by the Langkasuka warriors and was brought to the state to built two powerful cannons and some other inventions.
Also throughout the story, there were “skirmishes” by the Langkasuka warriors as well as by the Sea Gypsies themselves against the pirates. One thing is there was no continuation from one plot to another and that sucks. Almost at the end of the movie, the pirates assembled a large army and tried to invade Langkasuka. The Queen of Langkasuka also prepared for a defensive position with her high-walled city. At one point, the pirates successfully destroyed all of the state’s small cannons but the attack was staved off by the two large cannons built by the Chinese inventor. The story ends with the defeat of the pirates after all the magic and bombs being used.
It was a total waste of time for anybody expecting a good Thai movie that involved history and actions.
As a whole 2 ½ stars out of 5.
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