Two Faces Of Thailand: A Musical Portrait

Beats of the Heart

The king of Thailand for many years was a jazz musician, with a recording studio in his palace and the national radio network playing his recordings for an hour each week. That bizarre circumstance-captured here in rare footage of a palace jam session-sets the tone for the often strange world of Thai music, with its juxtapositions of Thai tradition and Western pop, and its connections with both Buddhism and the criminal underworld. Much of Two Faces Of Thailand centers on the Luk Tung music scene-a style of music mixing Thai folk tunes and treacly Western pop. Director Jeremy Marre joins Luk Tung star Surachai Sumbatcharon on the road as he takes his huge troupe (including sizable band and seventy dancing girls) across the country to stage sprawling, uniquely Thai extravaganzas that are the common man's entertainment. We also are taken into the cities, into the kick-boxing arenas (where music plays an integral role) and the red-light districts. It's all part of a cultural roller-coaster ride that gives insight into the vitality and genius of a culture which has maintained independence against all would-be invaders for many centuries.