14 tula, songkram prachachon

"The Moonhunter" (engl. title) intercuts between two stories. One is the student uprising of October 1973 (all in black and white, news reel style), the other is the personal story of Seksan, one of the student leaders, in the years 1974-1980. It's an interesting technique to parallel the two stories and leads to one question at the end, that the protagonist and the viewers might ask themselves: Did the students achieve enough in 73 or was it necessary to achieve more?

This "more" is actually communism. After 1973, many of the students fled to Laos and / or northern Thailand to organize an armed revolution. Those parts of the movie are handled very well because they show that once again, there was a good socialist idea in the beginning, that was crushed by the narrow minds of the communist leaders. Those stupid, endless discussions about the course of the party. Pro-Chinese, pro-Russian, pro-Vietnamese ... whatever, it's all just talk and the upholding of unnecessary dogmas. That becomes clear to Seksan, our protagonist.

He favors a democratic Socialism, a "Thai way". His exact agenda remains a little bit fuzzy but that actually helps the film because it allows more viewers to sympathize with him. One might therefore accuse "The Moonhunter" of political naïvite, but I wouldn't go so far. It tries to recapture those crucial moments in Thai history, its way to democracy - and some personal drama behind this historic event. Worth a look! I'd rate it

7/10