The Overture

"The Overture" movie poster

"The Overture" is a movie directed by Ittisoontorn Vichailak, wrote by Peerasak Saksiri, Dolkamol Sattatip from Thailand. The Overture is a movie based on the life of Luang Pradit Pairoh (Sorn Silapabanleng) the most revered traditional Thai music, the movie traces the life of Sorn, who picked up the ra-nad ek which is a Thai xylophones as a small child and played with all his life. At the local industry’s Subhannahongsa Film Awards, the historical musical drama won seven trophies. It is one of the movie that shows the character old and dying in the beginning and then flashes back to when he was young and how he got to where he is after that. During this time, the music of the ra-nad, among other classical Thai instruments, becomes suppressed and controlled by the government of Thailand and playing in public becomes illegal. One scene shows a piano being brought into the old music teacher’s place and there is a duet playing between the ra-nad and the piano.



When both of them are competing

I think If you are a musical person, you will definitely love this movie. Especially when the both of them are competing with their ra-nad ek. I personally feel that, not all music or instrument are easy to understand, I must say “The Overture” did a really good job to demonstrate the beauty of some Thai instrument.

The ra-nad

“The Overture” is the first Thai movie that I ever watched and the second was “Tong Yum Gong” which launched not long ago. Except for the language part that I did not really get very well, the rest are quite good. One thing I really respected was that the movie did not overdoes on the love factor, I felt that it kept it just right. I believe that this movie aims to bring about a new respect for the instrumental classical music, which Thai people would say, is a dying genre in Thailand. The acting skills for this movie is quite okay for Thai standards and the music is enchanting. The scenes where they play fast ra-nad songs are intense. I would say this movie is worth watching, especially to catch a glimpse of some of Siam’s heritage. I would rate this movie 6 out of 10.