The King Maker (2005)

Director:

Lek Kitaparaporn

Writer:

Sean Casey (writer)

Release Date:

20 October 2005 (Thailand)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

A warrior's path. A king's destiny.

Plot:

In 1547 Fernando De Gama, a young "Soldier of Fortune" from Portugal, set sail for the Orient in a bid to find the man that murdered his father and...

Plot Keywords:

King | Queen | Siam | Arab | Soldier

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Gary Stretch	...	Fernando De Gamma
John Rhys-Davies	...	Phillippe
Cindy Burbridge	...	Maria
Dom Hetrakul	...	Tong
Nirut Sirichanya	...	King Chairacha
Yoe Hassadeevichit	...	Queen Sudachan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dean Alexandrou	...	Ninja
Akara Amarttayakul	...	Pan Bud Sri Thep
Korawij devahastin na Ayudhya	...	Nobleman
Byron Bishop	...	Scar-Face Ninja
Thanet Chimpol	...	Dang
Tanapol Chuksrida	...	Mandarin #1
Daam Dasakorn	...	King of lanna
Shaun Delaney	...	Fernando's Father
Korawit Devahastin	...	Nobleman
Emma	...	Fernando's mother
Fei Gao	...	Flying ninja
Michael Hardie	...	Fernando as a child
Nate Harrison	...	Portugese Soldier
Prasita Katirattanachai	...	Tong's daughter
Rattanaporn Klongkan	...	Maria's maid
Peter Maiocchi	...	Singha
Damian Mavis	...	Portugese soldier / Village dancer
Faisal Zakaria Mohamed	...	Queen's bodyguard
Daniel O'Neill	...	Portuguese Soldier
Francisco Pereira	...	Antonio
Uraiwan Phattanasilp	...	Malee
Antonio Pineda	...	Don vincenti
Artthapan Poolsawad	...	Tong's son
Oliver Pupart	...	Lord Chakkraphat
Amora Purananda	...	Yai Jun
Cameron Roberts	...	Drummer boy
Mark Sobels	...	Father Pedro
Colin Stevens	...	Portugese soldier
Nicolas Torio	...	Mandarin #2
Charlie Trairat	...	Prince yod fa
Jonathan Winters	...	Andreas, the young soldier

MPAA:

Rated R for violence.

Runtime:

100 min | Japan:88 min

Country:

Thailand

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-15 | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Ayuthaya, Thailand

Company:

Winters Hollywood Entertainment Holdings Corporation

Trivia:

The Film is based on a true story set in 1547 in Siam. The real Queen at the time killed her husband and son to install her lover as the new King.

Quotes:

Mandarin #1: There must be something funny about your cock!

Soundtrack:

King Of My Heart

Good, But Not Great

Review of "The King Maker"

The King Maker is an epic from Thailand, which has followed the footsteps of other Thai epics like "Bang Rajan" and "The Legend of Suriyothai". It is almost inevitable to draw comparisons between "The King Maker" and "Suriyothai", because both take place at the same period, both have the same characters and the same historical plot. "The King Maker" is a mixture of "Suriyothai", "Bang Rajan", "House of Flying Daggers/Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "The Last Samurai"…but none of it truly works. In the end, it's hard to figure out what the movie is trying to be. The movie takes place in a non-fictional period of Thai history and yet you see ninjas flying across the room (yep, taken from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") and assassins diving from bamboo trees ("House of Flying Daggers"). This could have worked if properly implemented, but here it just threw the movie into dire imbalance. I shall not dwell into the plot (imdb provides a decent summary already), but I must add that it is formulaic and a heck of a mess. There are a lot of other faults, such as a weak script, weak character development and cheesy lines (oh, and a paper-thin love story). But there is not doubt that this was an ambitious movie, aimed at a wide audience. It was filmed entirely in English, but the version that I saw had the Thais actors dub their voices into Thai (which was better than hearing them speak in broken English). This caused the actors' voices throughout the movie to be crisper than the picture itself, which I found annoying but nonetheless forgivable.

Despite these faults, I did enjoy the movie. Save for the abysmal (but thankfully very brief) CGI at times, visually the movie looks great. The setting and the costumes were all very good. The battle scene (there is only one) is quite brief, but nonetheless decent. A movie like this needs a satisfying and thundering battle scene, but while it was okay here it doesn't satisfy completely. The soundtrack is great, reminds you much of "The Mummy Returns" and "Cutthroat Island". It was an honor to see John Rhys Davies (whom we all know as Gimli from LOTR, as well as Indiana Jones) in a Thai movie, and he is arguably the one who reinforces a reason to watch this movie. My favorite Thai model and former Miss Thailand Cindy Burbridge, whom I thought wouldn't live up to my expectations, was surprisingly good in this movie. The cast were all decent, with the Thais switching back and forth between Thai and English without much problem. But the main reason for why I enjoyed "The King Maker" was that it portrayed the life of the foreigners (Portuguese, Japanese, Arab, etc), all from different cultures and countries, living side by side with each other in a foreign kingdom. It was extremely interesting. "The King Maker" is an epic in itself, but the scale is not grand enough to earn it a place among the classics. It probably had a lot of enthusiasm about it, but it unfortunately misses its mark.

All in all, this movie will almost certainly not receive a wide release. The movie isn't a "good" movie by any means. If you have a chance to watch it, do not have any grand expectations whatsoever. Some scenes are downright pathetic that it'll make you cringe. "Suriyothai" is the definite Thai epic film on the subject and is much grander, and obviously the better choice out of the two. Yet, "The King Maker" is a brave and ambitious attempt at grand movie-making.

6.5/10 (much goes to John Rhys Davies)