LEGEND OF THE TSUNAMI WARRIOR (2008)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

Well, LEGEND OF THE TSUNAMI  WARRIOR is definitely the best Thai-made action-fantasy epic I've ever seen, because it's the ONLY-- you get the idea. 

All of the movie's action takes place in an island-nation known as Langkasuka, in which the aristocrats and the warriors are all beautifully attired and no poor people make an appearance. That's just an observation, not a flaw, since TSUNAMI is a high-flown struggle between great sea-powers, in which the titular "tsunami warrior," sort of a mystical Thai version of Aquaman, intercedes on the side of the righteous.

Though the locale is semi-legendary in Thai history, the story is set in the late 16th century, when this part of Asia has had at least substantial contact with Dutch traders and with Chinese scientists. Queen Hijau of Langkasuka rules her land well from her opulent court, but her reign is threatened by a rebel, Prince Rawai, and his pirate ally Black Raven. When Hijau sends to the West for a great cannon, the pirates try to take possession of the weapon, but only succeed in sinking the ship. Hijau does succeed in finding the cannon's inventor, hoping to get him to construct a new weapon before the rebels attack.

These events take place over roughly fifteen years, which begin with the oprhan-hero Pari (Ananda Everingham) as a young teen. Pari's uncle thinks the boy has the potential to learn the mystical techniques of "Di Lum," and he tries to encourage the local sage, White Ray, to teach the boy. White Ray thinks the boy is haunted by too many negative emotions and rejects him from the Jedi Order-- I mean, the Di Lum tradition. Nevertheless, Pari's natural talent is so strong that he more or less perfects many of the disciplines on his own, which include being able to descend into the sea-waters for long periods of time and to commune with sea-life. By the time the youth grows to manhood, the conflict between Hijau and the rebels reaches a critical point.

Curiously, though grown Pari does at various times intervene to protect his queen or her forces, there's not a clear alignment between the hero and those he protects. There are far too many characters at Hijau's court, some of whom are visitors from outside with their own agenda. I for one got lost in all the cross-character action, though I always got the sense that the actors were doing a good job with all these involved machinations.

At some point Pari does get some instruction from White Ray, but he also comes across a rival magician, Black Ray, who looks like a dark-haired version of the "good magician" (and is played by the same actor). Black Ray tempts Pari to follow the way of the Dark Side, and the hero does succumb to some bad feelings at times, though I'm not sure any of Black Ray's plotting changes the plot substantially. The big payoff, when Pari uses his ocean-born allies to foil the pirates, is definitely worth sitting through all the slow stuff.

Given that the metaphysical aspects of the film are much stronger than all the court-conspiracies, TSUNAMI would have been much improved had it focused more strongly on Pari's path to heroic accomplishment, and played down most of the side characters. But hey, when you're "Number One," you don't have to try that hard.