The Christmas Dream Musical Analysis: Thailand's Pioneering Musical in Decades Delivers a Heavy Dose of Sentimental Spectacle.
Reportedly the initial musical production from Thailand in half a century, The Christmas Dream comes under the direction of Englishman Paul Spurrier and offers up a curious mixture of modern and traditional elements. It functions as a modern-day rags-to-riches tale that journeys from the hills of the north to the bustling capital of Bangkok, featuring old-school Technicolor visuals and plenty of emotionally rich musical highlights. The music and lyrics are crafted by Spurrier, accompanied by an symphonic soundtrack composed by Mickey Wongsathapornpat.
A Journey of Innocence and Ethics
Exhibiting a steely resolve but in a much smaller package, Amata Masmalai plays Lek, a ten-year-old schoolgirl. She is forced to escape after her abusive stepfather Nin (portrayed by Vithaya Pansringarm) fatally assaults her mother. Setting out with only her disabled toy Bella for companionship, Lek relies on a strong moral compass, promised toward a better life by the spirit of her late mum. Her path is peppered with a cast of picaresque characters who challenge her principles, among them a pampered rich girl desperately seeking a true friend and a charlatan physician hawking questionable remedies.
Spurrier's affection for the musical genre is plain to see – or, to be precise, it is resplendent. The early rural sequences in particular bottle the warm, vibrant feel reminiscent of The Sound of Music.
Dance and Cinematic Flair
The choreography often possesses a lively visual energy. A memorable highlight erupts on a corporate business park, which acts as Lek's first taste of the Bangkok rat race. With business executives cartwheeling in and out of a great clockwork procession, this represents the singular moment where The Christmas Dream approaches the stylized complexity found in golden-age musical cinema.
Story and Song Limitations
Although richly arranged, a lot of the score is excessively anodyne musically and lyrically. Instead of strategically placing songs at pivotal points in the plot, Spurrier saturates the film with them, apparently trying to mask a underdeveloped narrative. Substantial adversity is present solely at the beginning and conclusion – with the mother's death and when her spirits wane in Bangkok – is there enough challenge to offset an overly simple and saccharine narrative arc.
Brief glimmers of mild social commentary, such as when Lek's stroke of luck has avaricious villagers crawling all over her, are hardly enough for older viewers. While could buy into the pervasive positive outlook, the foreign backdrop cannot conceal a fundamentally sense of blandness.