BANGKOK, Thailand — Thai villagers brandishing spears, machetes and torches are battling murderous Burmese invaders, while bravely suffering hacked-off limbs in a jungle splattered with blood.

Cocooned in airconditioned movie theaters, popcorn-munching Thais recoil in horror at the atrocities, and curse Burma as their worst enemy.

To the north, meanwhile, the government of Laos is angry about Thai plans to film a Lao king's defeat and the heroics of a Thai woman who rallied against him.

Further east in Cambodia, actors dressed as slaves and soldiers are gearing up to slaughter Thais and extend the glory of Angkor Wat's civilization, in another cinematic display of past military might.

Slasher Movies

Across Southeast Asia's Buddhist-majority nations of Thailand, Burma, Laos and Cambodia, a new commercial release of war films is kindling old memories and fueling new hatreds, much to the worry of politicians, academics and film reviewers.

Every Thai school child is taught the date 1767, when Burmese invaders slashed their way into fabled Ayutthaya city, killing, looting or enslaving anyone they could while burning the capital of the kingdom to the ground.

Today, the trail of blood leading from Ayutthaya to the theaters is especially troubling among villagers and troops along the vulnerable border.

Thailand and Burma bombed each other with artillery earlier this year in their anarchistic, mountainous Golden Triangle zone, resulting in several deaths.

Both sides blamed each other for selling illegal opium, heroin and methamphetamines while supporting minority ethnic guerrillas along the frontier.

Ticket sales of the local-made films meanwhile are zooming — despite Asia's moribund economy.

One of the most popular in the new military genre is a Thai film released in November titled, Bang Rajan: The Legend of the Village's Warriors, which is "based on a true story."

Huge posters depict a screaming, muscular, bare-chested Thai waving an axe while galloping atop a long-horned waterbuffalo.

He's the village hero, leading hundreds of Thais who wield machetes, spears and other vicious rain forest weapons into a battlefield of explosions and fire.

"Fighting for Friends. Fighting for Families. Fighting for Freedom. Fighting for Their Lives," adds Bang Rajan's advertisements.

The well-acted, high quality movie is exciting, poignant and gruesome. Plenty of chopped up bodies groan in the jungle as Thais and Burmese clash face-to-face.

The film shows Burma's army overrunning the Thai village of Bang Rajan but suffering after the victims teach themselves to fight.

The Bangkok Post described it as a "gory historical drama."

The blood-and-mud film reportedly raked in more than 150 million baht (three million U.S. dollars) in ticket sales, making it 2001's biggest movie thus far.

Nai Kanom Tom

An earlier Thai film lionized the life of Nai Kanom Tom, who was seized during Burma's invasion and put in a boxing ring against Burmese strongmen.

Nai punched out nine of them in a row, impressing the Burmese king. These lucrative Thailand-versus-Burma films anger the unelected Burmese military regime.

In a critique headlined "Who's The Culprit?" the official New Light of Myanmar (Burma) newspaper reported on June 16 that Thailand has "shot movies insulting Myanmar kings and Myanmar people."

Tiny, communist, land-locked Laos meanwhile wants Thailand to halt production of a film which tells the tale of Tao Suranaree, a southern Thai woman who allegedly led resistance against Lao forces in 1826.

The secretive, repressive regime in Laos reiterated its anti-film appeal to Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during his June visit across the Mekong River.

Mr. Thaksin replied that Thailand is a democracy which allows freedom to make such films, but added he would mention the problem to the film's producers.

Lao Embassy First Secretary Khammy Bouasengthong said in a statement: "I don't see the need to bring up the Tao Suranaree story."

The Lao envoy added, "We did not propagandize our people into hating Thais or Siam (Thailand), who came to kill our people and took the Emerald Buddha image from us" during a previous war when Thailand destroyed the Lao capital.

Thai Linguistics Professor Dhawat Boonnotoke agreed and said, "Based on historical fact, Thailand has done so much more to denigrate Laos as its vassal state, from the burning down of its capital Vientiane and evacuating the people to Siam to offset its manpower which was plundered by Burmese warriors."

Mr. Dhawat added, "We treated Laos in the same way as the Burmese did to Ayutthaya."

Thai Senate Speaker Piceet Pattanachot also agreed and said, "If any scene could worsen relations with Laos, that part should be skipped."

But the movie's Thai director Phisal Akaraseni defended his work, scheduled for release in 2002.

"We are not supposed to celebrate this heroic feat just because we don't want to hurt our neighbor's feelings?" Mr. Phisal said in a published interview.

"Many people say I would be kicking up a storm that could damage good relations with the neighboring country if I go ahead with the plan to shoot the film."

Shrugging off the criticism, the director added, "We live in a democratic society."

Skin Cut Off and Smeared with Salt

In 1934, when a statue was built of Mrs. Tao in downtown Nakhon Ratchasima city hailing her bravery, its appearance sparked arguments between the two nations and a widespread debate about patriotism and honor.

She was the first "commoner" portrayed in a national monument and the first Thai female to grace a postage stamp.

Nowadays, proud Thai feminists point to her as a woman who achieved respect from male-dominated society.

School children are taught how Lao troops attempted to ravage northeast Thailand and kidnap its people, including Mrs. Tao, the wife of a high-ranking officer.

Her rallying cry to resist the Lao invaders succeeded and the Korat region, 220 kilometers northeast from Bangkok, was never assaulted again.

In Laos, an opposite lesson is taught about the war.

At that time, Laos was sick of suffering as a vassal under Thailand, which repeatedly burnt its capital and looted its treasures.

When Lao King Anuwong rebelled and invaded Korat, he was hailed by his people, though he perished in defeat.

"King Anuwong was put in a cage," a historic Thai account reveals.

"Every day, (Thai) people came to see him and condemned him.

"Scalding water was poured on him. His skin was cut off by a knife and he was smeared with salt.

"He died with much suffering in the second month of 1829."

This year's biggest hit, however, is expected in August when opulent visuals, costumes, set designs and battle scenes appear in the historic epic, "Suriyothai."

It describes Queen Suriyothai's supposedly heroic death atop an elephant on a battlefield in 1549, defending her brother the king against another Burmese invasion of Ayutthaya.

By Thai standards the film is a huge production, with a budget of nearly one million U.S. dollars.

The movie "is expected to become the box office hit of the year, as well as the biggest-ever Thai film in terms of earnings from ticket sales," the Bangkok Post reported in a special "Mid-Year Economic Review" charting Thailand's financial posture.

Cash spin-offs from "Suriyothai" T-shirts, hats, desk accessories, key chains, posters and kitchenware will keep money flowing in.

History Is Bunk

A recent university seminar in Bangkok titled, "From Fact to Fiction: A History of Thai-Myanmar Relations in Cultural Context," allowed academics from both nations to examine the problem.

"The 'fact' that Burma is our arch enemy has been institutionalized, and at the same time fictionalized in popular movies," Sunait Chutintaranond, a respected Burma expert at Bangkok's prestigious Chulalongkorn University, was quoted as saying.

"Today this fictionalization is out of control."

Ironically, Burma's saber-rattling films do not harp on Thailand as its main foe, the seminar was told.

Burmese flicks instead show their former British colonialist masters as evil brutes.

For Thailand, however, Burma is the only "worthy enemy," according to Dr. Sunait.

"We were never colonized, so we can't portray a European country as our enemy.

"China is too far away. Laos is too small.

"Cambodia has been ungrateful but nothing more.

"As for Vietnam, we fought them, but it was over Cambodia," Dr. Sunait said.

Thongbai Thongpao, a respected Thai parliamentarian, predicted, "There are reports that Cambodia will make a film about Khom Dam Din, celebrating their attack on Sukhothai when it was the Thai capital.

"If the film turns out to be an insult to Thailand, I bet we won't like it either."

Film Wars: The Cinematic Aesthetics of Patriotic Slaughter

by Richard S. Ehrlich