The Christmas Dream Musical Analysis: The Kingdom's Pioneering Musical in Half a Century Is Big On Sentimental Spectacle.
Reportedly the initial musical production from Thailand in five decades, The Christmas Dream comes under the direction of Englishman Paul Spurrier and presents a fascinating blend of the contemporary and the classic. It functions as a modern-day Oliver Twist that journeys from the northern highlands to the urban sprawl of Bangkok, featuring vintage, vibrant visuals and an abundance of heartstring-tugging musical highlights. The music and lyrics are the work of Spurrier, set to an symphonic soundtrack composed by Mickey Wongsathapornpat.
A Journey of Hope and Morality
Exhibiting a steely determination but in a more diminutive package, Amata Masmalai plays Lek, a pre-teen schoolgirl. She is forced to escape after her violent stepfather Nin (played by Vithaya Pansringarm) fatally assaults her mother. Venturing forth with only her disabled toy Bella for company, Lek is guided by a unyielding sense of right and wrong, promised toward a new home by the ghost of her late mum. Her quest is peppered with a series of picaresque characters who challenge her principles, including a spoiled rich girl in dire need of a true friend and a quack doctor hawking dubious miracle cures.
Spurrier's affection for the musical genre is abundantly clear – or, to be precise, it is gloriously evident. Initial rural sequences in particular bottle the ruddy glow reminiscent of The Sound of Music.
Dance and Cinematic Flair
The dance routines often possesses a quickstep visual energy. A memorable highlight erupts on a corporate business park, which acts as Lek's introduction to the Bangkok rat race. Featuring suited professionals tumbling in and out of a large clockwork procession, this represents the one instance where The Christmas Dream approaches the stylized complexity characteristic of golden-age musical cinema.
Story and Song Limitations
Despite being lavishly orchestrated, much of the music is too bland both in melody and lyrics. Rather than strategically placing songs at pivotal points in the plot, Spurrier douses the film with them, apparently overcompensating for a underdeveloped storyline. Only during the beginning and conclusion – with the mother's death and when her hope falters in Bangkok – is there enough challenge to offset an otherwise simple and saccharine narrative arc.
Brief glimmers of mild class satire, such as when Lek's stroke of luck attracts avaricious villagers crawling all over her, are unlikely to satisfy older viewers. While could buy into the pervasive positive outlook, the foreign setting fails to disguise a fundamentally sense of blandness.
