Once Upon a Star (2023)

An underrated, nostalgic movie.

This movie is so underrated that almost no one talks about it. But I'm glad I found this gem. A movie about a movie is something that has been done before, but ‘Once Upon a Star’ still manages to stand out in its own unique way. While this kind of movie (like Singin’ in the Rain or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) mostly focuses on the actor, actress, or director, this movie centers on the little people, which are traveling cinema troupes that roamed rural Thailand, bringing outdoor cinema and dubbed movies in the 1960s and 1970s.

This movie successfully takes the audience back to the 1960s-70s era with detailed settings and props. I like the fact that they took something from history that isn’t given as much attention in most movies, which is 16mm film live-dubbing. It’s something the younger generation might not have any clue about but is worth knowing and learn about. And it also highlighted Thailand’s most famous movie star at the time, Mitr Chaibancha. (Feel free to Google him)

The plots are well-stitched and developed neatly. The movie moves at quite a slow pace by showing them struggle to make a profit, taking any job possible even as far as outskirt area. But despite its slow pace, it doesn't feel too draggy. Thanks to the beauty shots. It also included a triangle love involving Manit, Kao, and Kae, which takes up just a nice portion of this movie in order to create an emotional conflict between the characters. Every character has a distinct personality and a story to tell, all of which blend together in one big narrative, but their characters are somewhat underexplored.

Although the main focus of the movie is the journey of the cinema troupes, it actually gives a glimpse at how Mitr Chaibancha’s popularity played a huge role in Thai culture, as well as Thai cinema and movie growth. His life adds more depth to this movie and makes the whole context of this movie reasonable. When he passed away during the peak of his career, it seemed like the cinema business died with him. His death pretty much brought an end to the 16mm era.

Overall, despite a few flaws, it’s a good movie that recounts a historical tale and have good messages within the storylines. It deserves as much attention as other period movies. In my personal opinion, it is a good and entertaining underrated movie.

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Heart Warming

I placed spoilers at the end of this review.

This was an excellent movie with an outstanding script. What is interesting is that the script had a mixture of many different things that somehow worked. The overall theme is the importance of friendship, but also has some slight romance. It also was a tribute to a famous Thai film actor, Mitr Chaibancha. See the spoiler alert at the end of this review if you want more information. This had an outstanding cast that did a great job with their characters. It also had beautiful cinematography and great music.

Random Notes:
I love watching moves/series that are set in a different generation. Although I don’t know how accurate it was, it was cool to see Thailand in the 1970’s.

I’ve only watched a few Thai movies, but this is the first one that had a solid script and great acting.





******Potential Spoiler Alert******

There was a love triangle that was resolved quickly. It was not overpowering and did not become the main focus of the movie.

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