The Christmas Dream Analysis: Thailand's First Musical in Decades Is Big On Heartfelt Pageantry.
Hailed as the first Thai musical in five decades, The Christmas Dream is directed by Englishman Paul Spurrier and presents a fascinating blend of modern and traditional elements. The film serves as a modern-day Oliver Twist that travels from the hills of the north to the urban sprawl of Bangkok, featuring old-school Technicolor aesthetics and an abundance of emotionally rich musical highlights. Its songs are crafted by Spurrier, set to an symphonic soundtrack composed by Mickey Wongsathapornpat.
A Journey of Hope and Morality
Exhibiting a Michelle Yeoh-like resolve but in a more diminutive package, Amata Masmalai takes on the role of Lek, a ten-year-old schoolgirl. She is compelled to flee after her abusive stepfather Nin (portrayed by Vithaya Pansringarm) brutally kills her mother. Setting out with only her disabled toy Bella for companionship, Lek relies on a unyielding sense of right and wrong, directed toward a new home by the spirit of her late mum. Her path is populated by a series of picaresque companions who challenge her principles, among them a pampered rich girl desperately seeking a true friend and a quack doctor peddling dubious miracle cures.
The director's love of the song-and-dance format is plain to see – or, more accurately, it is resplendent. Initial rural sequences in particular bottle the warm, vibrant feel reminiscent of The Sound of Music.
Visual and Choreographic Flair
The choreography often possesses a quickstep snap and pace. A memorable highlight breaks out on a corporate business park, which serves as Lek's first taste of the Bangkok corporate grind. With business executives tumbling in and out of a large mechanical cortege, this represents the one instance where The Christmas Dream approaches the stylized complexity found in golden-age musical cinema.
Musical and Narrative Shortcomings
Despite being richly orchestrated, a lot of the music is excessively anodyne both in melody and lyrics. Instead of studding songs at pivotal points in the plot, Spurrier saturates the film with them, seemingly trying to mask a somewhat weak narrative. Substantial adversity is present solely at the start and finish – with the tragedy of Lek's mother and when her spirits wane in Bangkok – is there enough challenge to offset an otherwise straightforward and sweet narrative arc.
Brief hints of mild class satire, such as when Lek's stroke of luck has greedy locals crawling all over her, are hardly enough for older viewers. Young children might embrace the general optimism, the foreign setting cannot conceal a fundamentally narrative blandness.
