And now, a Thai filmmaker by the name of Nonzee Nimibutr ("Nang Nak" and "Jan Dara") is making a film entitled "The Queen of Langkasuka". The story is supposedly about three sister queens of Pattani and their efforts to acquire a powerful cannon to protect their kingdom from a rogue prince and his pirate allies. "The Queen of Pattani" was the proposed original title, but was dropped because of the sensitivity of it in relation to the present separatist movement in southern Thailand.
It's kind of strange to see characters dressed up in old-style Malay clothes speaking Thai, but I dare say this movie might prove to be quite a hit. And it's also nice to see an Asian filmmaker making a movie about a culture and history that is not his. Then again, knowing how intertwined the ancient history of Thailand and the Malay peninsula is, it might be presumptuous of me to assume that the history and culture of Langkasuka is foreign to him. After all, the northern part of this ancient kingdom stretched all the way into the south of modern day Thailand.
"The idea came when I was researching my last film, Okay Baytong, which took me around the southern provinces. I became aware that we knew so little about the place, the people and the history of the region. There are so many stories worth telling." - Nonzee Nimibutr
And what is "OK Baytong"? It's his 2003 movie that tells the story of a Thai monk going south to settle his late sister's affairs after she was killed in a train attack by separatist insurgents. There, he learns that his sister had married a Muslim man who lived across the border in Malaysia and had a daughter by him.
Looking at the present situation in Southern Thailand, I think this might be a touching and moving story.
PS: An interesting fact that cropped up during my search on "Langkasuka" was that it was one of the names being considered for the new political entity that would emerge after UK granted independence to what we now know as the Federation of Malaysia.
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Added on 3 Aug 2007: Here's more about the queens of Pattani (Langkasuka). There were four queens regnant (queens who rule in their own right) whose reigns saw great prosperity for their kingdom. They were the Rajas (or should it be Ratu?) Hijau (Green) who ruled for 31 years, Biru (Blue) who ruled for 7 and Ungu (Purple) who ruled for 12. All of them were sisters and succeeded each other after the older one died. When Ungu passed away, she was succeeded by her daughter, Kuning (Yellow) who ruled the longest, about 50 years in total.
http://www.rockmekong.org/media-cov/News2002/queens.htm
Labels: history, malaysia, movies, thailand
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