Some well-traveled friends ecstatically proclaimed Thailand as the most exotic place they've ever visited, and I can't dispute that from the beautifully photographed Thai films I've seen. Too few of them at this point, and all had involved martial arts until I finally saw Itthisoontorn Vichailak's The Overture (Hom rong) from a Netflix DVD rental. Even this film retained elements common to the martial arts melodramas—spiritual connections to an art and extreme competition between foes.
The story is a fictionalized account VERY loosely based on Thailand's master musician Luang Pradit Phairao (1881-1954), legendary for his genius on the classical ranad—a traditional Thai wooden xylophone. Gifted musicians in this world compete with each other as obsessively as Salieri does in Amadeus…