The Legend of Suriyothai, directed and written by Prince Chatrichalerm Pikol, is an epic film with a cast of thousands recounting two decades in the history of Thailand from 1528 that center on the way in which Suriyothai (played by Lady Piyapas Bhirombhakdi) paved the way for the two loves of her life to gain power and thereby to save the Thai race from ethnic cleansing by the Burmese. Financed by current Queen Sirikit, with major events subtitled by year and month for Thai schoolchildren, the movie is much more than a history lesson. When the film begins, Suriyothai breaks tradition as a royal princess by walking among the commoners to meet her boyfriend Prince Pirenthorathep (played by Chatchai Plengpanich), who in turn pledges that he will come to her aid whenever she wants. However, her father insists that she must marry Prince Thienraja (played by Sarunyu Wongkrachang) so that the northern and southern kingdoms of Ayuthaya (Siam as a unified country did not yet exist) will be allied, thereby deterring the well-armed Burmese, led by King Hongsa (played by Supakit Thangtatsawat), who is strangely portrayed as an effeminate leader. Her sacrifice in consenting to the marriage is her first but not her last. After her father, the northern king, dies, she becomes a master at court intrigue, seeking to outwit Queen Srisudachan (played by Mai Charoenpura), who as the High Consort to the new king is plotting to restore her own family as the royal line for both the north and the south. Twice, a king dies, with only a young boy as his male heir, whetting the appetite of the Burmese to attack while Ayuthaya apparently lacks strong leadership, so there is much necessity as well as opportunity for court intrigue to bring military heroes into greater prominence. Suriyothai maneuvers, first as consort to a boy king, and later, when Thienraja is crowned King Mahachakrepat, as his queen. In a decisive battle that resulted in the defeat of the Burmese, Suriyothai commits a final sacrifice–riding into battle to divert the enemy troops from slaughtering the king. According to the tagline, ” A woman warrior changed the course of history,” though researchers do not agree on the film version as historical fact. The Legend of Suriyothai, which broke all box office records in Thailand, is the most expensive Thai film ever made, though the dialog is rather stilted and the acting somewhat stiff. The pace is rapid, due to careful editing by the director’s film school classmate Francis Ford Coppola, who shrinks 480 minutes of film footage down to 142 action-packed minutes. However, non-Thais (for whom the expurgated version of the original version, entitled Suriyothai, is intended) will doubtless lose track of a fascinating history that in many ways resembles the historical plays of Shakespeare while depicting a queen who can be compared with Queen Elizabeth, whose rule began only a decade later. Two centuries later, however, Burmese hordes sacked Ayuthaya after a heroic defense of the kingdom by ordinary villagers, as dramatized in the film Bangkok Dangerous (2000), and the Thai capital then moved south, across the river from what is now known as the city of Bangkok. MH