Bangkok (Lonely Planet) - Andrew Burke [30]
In 2007 Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol followed up 2001’s massively popular Suriyothai with a duo of historical dramas, The Legend of King Naresuan, parts I and II. The epics are a semi-sequel to Suriyothai, and tell the story of the 16th-century Thai king who was taken hostage by the Burmese after Ayuthaya was sacked, and who later reclaimed the kingdom’s independence. A third part, starring Tony Jaa, began production in 2008.
Today Thailand plays host to two large film festivals, the Bangkok International Film Festival (BKKIFF, Click here), and the World Film Festival of Bangkok, further evidence that the country lies at the epicentre of a growing film industry.
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HALF CHILD
Leaf through any Thai fashion magazine and you’ll come across at least two or three lôok krêung faces. Turn on the TV to watch Thai soap operas, commercials or music videos and you’re even more likely to see the offspring of fà·ràng/Thai couplings.
Literally ‘half child’, the lôok krêung wasn’t always a mainstay of Thai media. In the 1970s and ‘80s most lôok krêung were the children of male American servicemen stationed at one of the seven US military bases scattered around Thailand during the Indochina War. Their mothers may have been Thai women associated only briefly with their fathers; some were meea chôw (‘rental wives’ – a euphemism for prostitute). The resulting Amerasian children of these alliances were typically looked down upon by other Thais.
That perception began to change following Thailand’s economic boom in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when lôok krêung who were schooled abroad or educated at bilingual international schools in Thailand became adults. A new wave of lôok krêung, who were the children of expats with more permanent ties to Thailand, were also born during this time, in circumstances deemed more ‘respectable’ within Thai society.
Coupled with the fading public memory of the Indochina War births, the stigma formerly attached to lôok krêung became positive rather than negative almost overnight. Fluency in English and whiter skin tones – apparently a Thai preference long before Europeans arrived in Thailand – lend lôok krêung a significant advantage as media figures. Today, a high proportion of models, actors, VJs, beauty queens and pop music stars are lôok krêung.
Among the most well-known lôok krêung in Thailand are Tata Young (music), Paula Taylor (music/film/VJ), Sonya Couling (modelling), Nat Myria (music), Peter Corp Dyrendal (music), Ananda Everingham (TV/film), Sunny Suwanmethanon (film) and, of course, ‘Bird’ McIntyre (music/film).
The lôok krêung phenomenon has become so topical in Thailand nowadays that a 2006 TV soap opera, Lady Mahachon, revolved around a lôok krêung pop star (played by real-life lôok krêung pop star Paula Taylor) looking for her American father (Erich Fleshman, a bilingual American actor), whom she hadn’t seen since early childhood.
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THEATRE & DANCE
Traditional Thai theatre consists of five dramatic forms. Kǒhn is a formal, masked dance-drama depicting scenes from the Ramakian (the Thai version of India’s Ramayana), and originally performed only for the royal court. Lá·korn is a general term that covers several types of dance-drama (usually for nonroyal occasions), including má·noh·rah, the southern Thai version based on a 2000-year-old Indian story, and Western theatre. Lí·gair (likay) is a partly improvised, often bawdy folk play featuring dancing, comedy, melodrama and music. Lá·korn lék or hùn lǒoang is puppet theatre, and lá·korn pôot is modern spoken theatre.
Kǒhn
In all kǒhn performances, four types of characters are represented