Belay that order! Thai film fans in the U.S., if you're still thinking about getting that Taiwanese disc of Queens of Langkasuka (Puen Yai Jome Salad), you might want to pause for a bit -- Nonzee Nimibutr's historical pirate epic will be released in the U.S. on DVD and Blu-ray in May.
Two years since it played in Thai cinemas and made the rounds on the festival circuit, Queens of Langkasuka has been picked up by Magnolia and given a new title -- Legend of the Tsunami Warrior.
I'm not too keen on it -- southern Thailand was hit by a deadly tsunami in 2004 and the pain from that lingers. But I can see why Magnolia wants to spice things up. Germany went with the straightforward and somewhat literal Pirates of Langkasuka for its release. But words like "legend", "tsunami" and "warrior" are manly buzzwords should help attract action-film and fantasy buffs who might otherwise believe a Thai movie called Queens of Langkasuka must inevitably involve transvestites.
It doesn't.
Ananda Everingham stars as a magical sea gypsy who joins in league with the queen's military chief (Dan Chupong) in fighting pirates to retrieve a pair of extremely large cannon from the ocean floor. Sorapong Chatree, Winai Kraibutr and Jarunee Suksawat also star in this action-packed, swashbuckling fantasy.
Warrior will be released on May 11. Amazon has the DVD and the Blu-ray listed. Box art and details on specifications are yet to come.
(Via Blu-ray.com, thanks Logboy!)
Good to see this one finally reach Region 1. Magnolia usually does a great job of not messing around too much with the film in bad edits either and that should help....
ReplyDeleteI'm not crazy about the new title either... It's a mistake in my opinion, as it isn't necessary to sell this one. Those of us that would want to buy it already know it under it's original title.... this just risks us missing out on finding this new release.