Review of A Christmas Dream – Thailand’s first musical in decades that is big on emotional spectacle | film

RPurportedly the first Thai musical in 50 years, A Christmas Dream, directed by Englishman Paul Spurrier, is an interesting mix of new and old: a modern Oliver Twist that progresses from the country’s northern hills to Bangkok, with old-school Technicolor trappings and emotionally lush overtures aplenty (written by Spurrier and set to an orchestral score by Micky Wongsathapornpat).

With an assertiveness resembling Michelle Yeoh but half her size, Amata Masmalai plays 10-year-old Lek schoolgirl, forced to flee after her abusive stepfather Nain (Only God Forgives Vithaya Pansringarm) beats her mother (Chomphopak Bonpol). Lake hits the road with her one-legged doll, Bella, with only a strong moral compass to guide her to the new home her mother’s ghost promised her. A number of the chatty sidekicks experience this, including a spoiled rich girl (Kathaya Chongprasit) who is desperate for a boyfriend and a quack doctor (Adam Kaukbet) who is selling dodgy cures.

It’s easy to see Spurrier’s love of the genre – or rather, a resplendent love, with early country scenes in particular filling the glow of the sound of the music. The choreography often includes a quick visual shot, the landmark number appearing on the financial industry campus being Leek’s introduction to the Bangkok rat race. As distinguished acts move in and out of the clock’s magnificent procession, it’s the only moment that A Christmas Dream touches on the abstraction and sophistication of Golden Age musicals.

Although lushly orchestrated, much of the music is very anodyne musically and lyrically. Rather than examining the drama of key moments, Spurrier overwhelms the film with it, overcompensating for a weak story. Only at the beginning and end – with the death of Lek’s mother and when her spirits rise in Bangkok – is there great distress to offset an overly straightforward journey. The mild glimmer of class satire, when Lake has a stroke of good fortune that has greedy villagers crawling all over her, won’t cut it for older audiences; Young children may buy into this general optimism, but the whimsical atmosphere can’t hide the underlying cuteness.