The Christmas Dream Musical Analysis: Thailand's Pioneering Musical in Decades Delivers a Heavy Dose of Sentimental Spectacle.
Hailed as the first Thai musical in half a century, The Christmas Dream comes under the direction of British filmmaker Paul Spurrier and presents a fascinating mixture of the contemporary and the classic. It functions as a modern-day Oliver Twist that travels from the northern highlands to the bustling capital of Bangkok, adorned with old-school Technicolor visuals and plenty of emotionally rich show-stopping numbers. The music and lyrics are the work of Spurrier, accompanied by an orchestral score from Mickey Wongsathapornpat.
An Odyssey of Hope and Morality
Portrayed with a Michelle Yeoh-like determination but in a much smaller frame, Amata Masmalai takes on the role of Lek, a ten-year-old schoolgirl. She is forced to escape after her abusive stepfather Nin (portrayed by Vithaya Pansringarm) brutally kills her mother. Venturing forth with only her one-legged doll Bella for company, Lek relies on a unyielding sense of right and wrong, promised toward a new home by the ghost of her late mum. Her quest is populated by a cast of picaresque characters who test her resolve, among them a pampered rich girl in dire need of a companion and a charlatan physician peddling questionable miracle cures.
The director's love of the song-and-dance format is plain to see – or, to be precise, it is resplendent. Initial rural sequences in particular bottle the warm, vibrant feel reminiscent of The Sound of Music.
Dance and Cinematic Pizzazz
The dance routines frequently has a lively visual energy. A particular standout breaks out on a corporate business park, which serves as Lek's first taste of the Bangkok rat race. Featuring business executives cartwheeling in and out of a great clockwork procession, this represents the singular moment where The Christmas Dream approaches the abstract sophistication found in golden-age musical cinema.
Musical and Narrative Limitations
Although richly orchestrated, a lot of the music is too anodyne both in melody and lyrics. Rather than strategically placing songs at key points in the plot, Spurrier saturates the film with them, apparently trying to mask a somewhat weak storyline. Only during the beginning and conclusion – with the mother's death and when her hope falters in Bangkok – is there enough challenge to balance an overly simple and saccharine journey.
Fleeting hints of gentle social commentary, such as when Lek's sudden good fortune has greedy locals crawling all over her, are unlikely to satisfy more mature audiences. Young children might embrace the pervasive positive outlook, the foreign setting fails to disguise a underlying narrative blandness.
