Bang Rajan: Legend of the Village Warriors, as titles at the beginning and end of the film inform, is the name of a village in central Thailand that held the invading Burmese army at bay for five months during 1765-66. The context of the conflict is that some of Burma's putative vassal states were refusing to pay tribute; they were instead supporting Ayudhaya, predecessor of the modern state of Thailand. Accordingly, Burma's newly crowned King Mang Ra launched an attack on Ayudhaya, sending two armies of 100,000 each, equipped with horses, armor, and cannons. The Burmese invasion created many refugees, who fled both to the village of Bang Rajan and to Ayudhaya. Although little is known about the specifics of the Battle of Bang Rajan, director Tanit Jitnukul brings eleven heroic characters to the screen, including a retiring commander, his mustached successor, a warrior monk, two female warriors and their husbands, and a drunken soldier who cuts his path in battle by lethally swinging two axes. Due to a tactical error, a rear flank is unguarded midway through the film, resulting in the fall of the village at the hands of General Nemeao Srihabodi. Titles at the end inform us that Ayudhaya fell more quickly under the Burmese onslaught, and the Thai people fled, later regrouping to the south under the leadership of King Taksin. In much of the film, scantily clad villagers heroically hold back the armored Burmese hordes, accompanied by stirring music. Two parallels between the eighteenth century story and contemporary Thailand are clear. One is that Burma remains an obstinate adversary of Thailand, which serves as the safe haven for many refugees escaping Burmese repression. The second parallel, perhaps unintended, is the fact that the current Prime Minister of Thailand is named Taksin, who claims an election mandate to rally the nation from the effects of the 1997 financial crisis with grand schemes, though his promises have yet to become solid accomplishments. MH
I
want to comment on this film
