(no subject)

Goodness help me I'm engaging with trolls on the World SF blog. D: I SHOULD KNOW BETTER.

(no subject)

I just finished watching Queen of Langkasuka, a Thai movie about the legendary kingdom. I can't remember watching a more multi-cultural movie. Usually, in English-language movies, the foreign dignitaries will speak English, with odd accents. In this movie, the queen greets foreign dignitaries in their own language. Except, of course, you can hear the Thai accent (assuming you know the languages in question. Queen Hijau speaks English and Chinese, and IIRC Malay). These Japanese characters speak Japanese. The English characters speak English. The Chinese characters speak Mandarin. (Since the Chinese characters are portrayed by Thai actors and actresses, you can hear their accent, but I'm willing to bet they did a better job of pronouncing Mandarin than Firefly characters did.)

The Malay subtitles were a bit hard for me to catch, partly because I'm not that great with Malay and partly because the subs went really quickly. But still, it was neat.

I mean, dude, Pari can summon stingrays and ride on their back.

And the Queen and her sisters get into armour at some point.

Even as one of them gets married to the Prince of Pahang while in love with Pari and stuff.

And there is a loyal warrior and given some time, there is total UST (ok, not sexual, just romantic).

AND SOMEHOW EVERYBODY IS CONNECTED IN TRUE ASIAN STORYTELLING STYLE.