Rating: 
Summary: The man w/lipstick can not be king
Review: But seriously, this is a great movie. Mark my words though, this is a drama. Not an action drama, a strait up drama. Yes, there are wars, but not enough conflict to be called an epic, in my opinion. Yes its 2 hours and 20 minutes, has a great story, everyone fighting to be king (w/one guy who should be, not fighting to be king), and as all this goes on, a regime to the north grows stronger in anticipation of taking over the kingdom, as the rulers are weak. (If that not one long run on sentence, I don't know what is).
I truly enjoyed this movie. It was done so well, and has a beautiful atmosphere through the whole movie. I would say the movie is loosely based on the story of Suriyothai and more on the city of Ayuthaya. Yes Suriyothai made 2 major sacrifices for the city, the last being the most important, and the first being unfortunate.
But there is probably 45 minutes of the movie (in the middle) that you forget the movie is even about Suriyothai, because power is unbalance in Ayuthaya. Then every sacrifice Suriyothai makes is for the people of Ayuthaya.
Most of the action in this movie is seen in the preview (if you've seen it). But the drama, and life style is the reason to watch this movie.
Since this movie was completely done in Thailand, if gives you a chance to see a life style from their point of view. Do not watch this movie for the action; watch it for the scenery, beautiful backdrop, and fantastic story in this beautiful country.
Rating: 
Summary: The Legend of Suriyothai
Review: Gruesomely violent and tedious with poor character development. However visually beautiful from the costumes and sets. Interesting and complicated storyline. Shows women as a powerful force despite the lack of character development.Set in 16th century Thailand (Siam).
Subtitled
Film is 154 minutes long...
Rating:
Summary: An accurate and entertaining Thai history lesson
Review: Ok, first of all...this was a historical film. There was, for all intents and purposes,no "script". Typically when hollywood makes an historical film it has to add a story behind the actual events so that the audience has something more to follow than just the "history lesson". Kind of like they did with Titanic. Big boat hits iceberg, begins sinking and lots of people die. Of course that would get pretty boring without a fictitous love story behind it. However, with Suriyothai, this is not the case. The film was commisioned by the queen of Thailand so that the people of Thailand could have an accurate depiction of an historical event and I for one feel they did just that. All the backstabbing, treachery, heartbreak AND violence, usually fabricated to give an historical movie substance, actually happened in the kingdom once known as Siam. The director and his team did tons of research that accurately reflects the true events that occured at the time. Of course, it is not for everyone and I'm sure most people unaware of the legend of Suriyothai, or simply not interested in the Thai culture, will pass this movie by and grab The Terminator 3 so they can be "entertained". This movie was made for one real reason; to give Thai people an historical picture of an event most, if not all, were unaware of. This is a kind of "North and South" for Thailand and Thai people. However, if you simply watch the movie and take in the "story" that's involved I think you will be pleasantly surprised, and you will learn something in the process as well. About 98% of this film is true. Little things like how someone was ACTUALLY executed or how someone rode an elephant into battle may be off a little, but for the most part this is an actual depiction of Thai history. I rented this movie because I am Thai, and felt intrigued to see what a "big-budget" Thai movie would be like. I enjoyed this movie for many reasons. The imagery, soundtrack and visuals are great. The story it tells is fascinating, made even more fascinating because it's true. The acting at times seems stretched and the direction during dialogue scenes may seem a little off to most westerners used to Hollywood movies. You more than likely would not see this movie unless you are Thai, related to someone Thai or interested in anything Thai. And that's too bad because it has a lot to offer for a movie that's just an "Historical Account".
Rating: 
Summary: NOW THAT'S AN EPIC
Review: The Legend of Suriyothai is a terrific epic. It tells the paralell stories two very different women. The first is Suriyothai, a princess who is in love with a fine man but is forced to marry Prince Tienne. The prince is a honey to look at it but really needs a good kick in the pants because he lacks the slightest bit of ambition or fighting spirit. Still, she makes the best of it. Her first love, Lord Piren also makes the best of it and carves out a succesfufl militray career.
The other woman is the King's consort. She's angelic to look at but is cruel and will do whatever it takes to have her own way. She falls in love with the ancient Thai equivalent of a knight and decides to make him king. She has three innocent men killed because they unwittingly stand in the way of her affair. She kills the king, several hapless servants and procedes to try to wipe out the entire royal family.
All along, Suriyothai sees what's up and battles to save her husband, children and country. There isn't room in the country for the two of them and one is going to have to die.
The movie is very violent in an operatic sort of way. Everybody in the movie loves, hates, fights, eats and forgives in a huge way. The good are very good and the bad are very bad. The actress playing the High Consort's henchwoman was particularly distrubing. Oh and it features a massive battle on elephants and the one of the most beautifully filmed death scenes I've ever seen. I don't buy a lot of DVDs becuase I have to absolutely love a movie before I'll shell out cash for it. I bought this one day after seeing it.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed, But Worthy
Review: The Legend of Suriyothai is the most expensive movie ever made in Thailand, the production funded by royalty itself. Visually, Suriyothai must be the most enthralling film I've ever seen. The dead-on and awesome costumes, the superb cinematography and sets (which were filmed at the real historical sites) are just tremendous, worthy of the Academy Awards. The scale is so huge, that the movie needs to be viewed at least twice.
However, Suriyothai is flawed for many reasons. First, is that the original version was actually 4 HOURS LONG (!), and had to be scaled down to just 2 and 1/2, understandably to suite Western audiences. I've seen the original version in Thailand and must say though it did drag, it's MUCH better and has more depth that the version released in the West. However, this skeletal version has a consequence of having been scaled down, so in fact, HALF the movie is missing in other words. Pretty unfair, in my opinion.
Secondly, I would have expected more well-choreographed fight scenes. To say the least, the collosal battles are pretty clumsy and ill-directed. So, don't expect much of a Braveheart-style combat. A movie of such extravaganza deserves more than just uninspired battle scenes.
Basically, the initial flaw would come as a result of the movie having been scaled down. Characters appear and dissapear. Most of the main characters have paperthin development and we sometimes forget who is who at times. I had to watch the movie three times to understand the movie entirely. Nonetheless, if you have patience and an interest in seeing into history of a nation far away, this is the definate movie to check out. I would advise watching the movie first before you buy it, since Suriyothai is definately a "like-it" or "hate-it" camp. I personally love this movie, since I can see it's potential and having seen the original version. The story is epic in proportions and if understood correctly, I would even say it's one of the best. Better than Hollywood by far.
Rating:
Summary: Eastern Cultural Complexities, a Western Recipe for Success?
Review: The Legend of Suryiothai, was first released in Thailand over two years ago and at the time, the movie was probably in excess of five hours in length. A movie of this length is unheard of in the West and would almost certainly not attract any viewers! It covers a span of nearly thirty years in the turbulent history of Thailand and its ongoing conflict with Burma. This was a particularly nasty time in worldwide history whether viewed from the colonial excesses of the resident power bases within Europe or the East. It is probably important to bear in mind that no matter how brutal some of the scenes recounted may be, it was equally bad, if not worse in Europe. Given that the movie that I saw was in about half the time of the original thanks to some expert editing by Francis Ford Copolla's expert editing, it is very evident that the movie does jump from plot to sub-plot to new theme in a slightly disjointed fashion. Nevertheless, with a little thought, it is very easy to follow the story through the good years and the bad ones. It is possible to see the political intrigue and the full range of very nasty emotions that arise purely as a vehicle to grasp power. As the saying goes, "..Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely..". This movie follows the going on in Thailand around one character "Suryiothai" a princess in one of the many fiefdoms in Thailand. It follows her path on and off through the years and the power struggles that she is directly and in many case not directly involved in, until her death. This movie has many merits and is possibly one of the best movies to come out of Asia in quite some time, so it is disappointing that so much of the flow of the movie was left on the editing room floor. This being said, I was not at all disappointed that I saw this movie and it was well worth the price of entry.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: There is no question this movie has flaws, but quite frankly I would prefer watching such flaws much more than suffering thru the miserable slop which is 98% of Hollywood films today... This is a fascinating look at another part of the globe which most of us have not experienced beyond eating Phad Thai at the local corner chifa. The colors, the costumes, the bloodthirsty ambition, and the elephants! What amazing images are these. I was particulary enthralled with the scenes of elephant warfare and the one with the elegent river canoes thrusting into battle. And the one-eyed warrior was over the top! Even Hollywood should recognize that guy's talent. How tough was he? For me, the only reason to not buy this right away is the hope that the longer Thai theatrical version (+45 minutes) might be even better. But I doubt its coming out any time soon, and often editing is done for a good reason (see Das Boot or Blade Runner). If you liked Lawrence of Arabia, Gandhi, Braveheart, or Elizabeth, I think you will enjoy this film. So my advice is to buy this fascinating film right now!
Rating:
Summary: A major undertaking with severe flaws
Review: There's no doubt that "The Legend of Suriyothai" was a major undertaking in Thailand's film history, and it was a super blockbuster there upon release for a good reason: it was a film about nationalism, about how one Thai queen made sacrifices (some of which might have been of questionable intent) to protect her husband.
While the film has nice cinematography, staging and music, it tries to cover too many things, at least for the Western audience, and ends up lacking focus, esp. in the first half, when the power struggle between the faction of which Suriyothai was a member and a royal consort who wanted to resurrect her clan's dominance of Siam. As I watched how the latter tried to wrestle the throne from her husband, the king, I was confused: why would a movie about "the legend of Suriyothai" spend 1/3 of its time on someone else?
First, a little background in case you were also confused about who was who and what was what.
Ayuthaya was the 16th-century capital of Siam, which was made up of several kingdoms. The ruler of Ayuthaya was the "king of kings," and the other kings were supposed to swear allegiance to him and his heir. This was somewhat like the Japanese shogunate system at the same time, whereby the warlords (shoguns, literally meaning generals) were supposed to be loyal to the emperor, who ruled out of Endo (modern Tokyo). Just like in Japan, this kind of confederate system was fertile ground for disloyalty and treachery.
Suriyothai, the daughter of a minor lord living in one of the small kingdoms, was forced into marriage to Prince Tien, whose father became king of Ayuthaya. Prince Tien was not heir to the throne because his mom was a concubine, not a "high consort", let alone queen. Power struggles erupted over succession after Prince Tien's father died. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie involves the fate of Tien's half-brother, a little boy who was king for only six months.
After Tien's cousin took over the throne, he went to fight the Burmese. Historically, Burma and Thailand has had bitter rivalry for centuries, mostly over land and women. When the king is going, his high consort schemed to overthrow him and restore her clan's claim to throne. One thing led to another, eventually Suriyothai helped her husband Tien become the ruler of Siam.
The last 50 minutes of the 2-hour-20-minute film is about a Siamese-Burmese war. Some well-staged battle scenes (with real people and real elephants) in this part make this a worthy film to watch for people interested in world history, esp. the history of southeast Asia. Finally, you understand why they call the film "the legend of Suriyothai" and how she made the "ultimate sacrifice" the narrator had promised to show you at the beginning of the film.
As you can see, the film has a lot of storylines, as it covers a span of 20 years of Thai (Siamese) history. Not only did I find the film lacking a focus for the first 2/3, but the acting quite stiff, as if the actors were just reading scripts. My mind started wandering away as the film kind of dragged on and became difficult to understand with so many hard-to-remember names scrolling by so fast. It was until the two-hour mark or so that the film regained its footing, at least in terms of having a followable, focused story.
After finishing the film and feeling rather confused and exhausted, I nonetheless had no regrets renting the DVD. In fact, the character of Suriyothai kinda stuck in my head so I rewatched the first part, in order to understand what was really going on. I still found the palace intrigues too much to follow, but at least I began to know who was who and what was what.
Rating: 
Summary: rich content with slow progress and bad script
Review: this film was directed in a very slow cooking way. if you don't have the patience and the nostalgic mood, you may have to use the fast forward button to speed up a bit. beautiful settings, costumes and scenes almost every frame but kinda bored, with a too ordinary and traditional script. the thai language is a very soft feminine tuned one that makes the guys all talk strangely like timid and helpless males. the two heroins played the same suriyothai neither is not a beautiful and likable choice. this is a movie that might be only suitable for those thai people who migrated to foreign countries and are thirsty for anything from thailand. but to us who are not thais, this might be not our cup of tea (but why i could enjoy many hindi movies even with too much singings and dancings is quite beyond myself). i've tried very hard to finish it but failed and might not try to rewatch or finish it, because i couldn't careless for an very uninteresting story that by watching it, might make my life even shorter.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing with several flaws
Review: This grand film of epic proportions is a landmark in the history of Asian filmmaking. Directed by a Prince and presented by the Master Francis Ford Coppola, this movie is simply extravagant. In many ways the grandeur presented here mirrors that found in RAN by Kirosawa. This extraordinary tale is of a woman who becomes queen of Thailand due to a series of palace coups and machinations that lands her pious monk husband at the throne and sends her boyhood friend Prince Piren into battle against the invading Burmese army. Full of epic battle scenes, beautiful palaces and extraordinary scenes of Asian tranquility this film conjures up a culture and a time long gone. From swashbuckling Portuguese mercenaries to stampeding armies mounted atop elephants no expense was spared. The deleted scenes lend to the grandeur. Yet several issues remain that take away from this films greatness and call into question the many awards it has received. First the film should have been twice as long. It is an epic and the stories and the characters deserve far more developing. This leads to the second problem, which is the documentary like feeling you get since the characters don't have time to be developed much of the film has to be walked through by a narrator and every scene has to be presaged by the ever present name of the place you are viewing. Had the film gone on for four hours one would have become used to the different palaces and cities, but due to its choppy nature one feels like they are watching something less then cinematic. But regardless of these subtle issues, this film is a winner. Seth J. Frantzman
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