E-Mail This Article to a Friend BANGRAJAN

Do we need a noble, sad film about war just now? How about one that’s also bloody and brutal? Yes, if the cinematography is as staggering as it is here. This two-hour epic helmed by Tanit Jitnukul (and, if you care, presented by Oliver Stone) depicts Burma’s invasion of Siam in 1765. Barefoot and lacking armor, horses, and sophisticated weaponry, several dozen villagers of Bangrajan, aided by a handful of refugees, held off 100,000 Burmese mercenaries for five months and became the stuff of legend. Several subplots follow the villagers’ relationships and are woven into what is, after all, a war epic. There’s some romance and humor, but Jitnukul mostly avoids the sentimentality of recent Asian epics like 2003’s Suriyothai. Some scenes are nevertheless profoundly moving, as when village fathers stack their dead sons upon a funeral pyre. The Thai actors are as fine as any London-trained thespians, and way more buff and beautiful. Given the scope of the battle scenes, the seeming absence of special effects is mind-boggling. The film’s climactic set pieces are intimate and brutal, hard to watch and hard to forget. In Thai with English subtitles. (120 minutes)