Sudsakorn (Charlie Trairat) is the son of Apaimanee (Sorachai
Sang-aakaat) and a mermaid (Pemanee Sungkorn), who is seperated from his
father pretty much at birth and brought up on faraway island by his mother
and a wizard - a wizard who trains him well enough to one day capture the
Black Dragon Horse. Eventually, there comes the day that Sudsakorn,
around 12 years of age, has to say good-bye to his mother and the wizard
to go look for his father, and as a farewell present, Sudsakorn gets the
wizard's magic cane. It's not long before the young boy runs across the
crooked and crazy wizard of Panom Island, who tricks him out of his horse
and cane and leaves Sudsakorn to die while he offers his magic services to the next kingdom for a price.
However, the Black Dragon Horse is loyal to Sudsakorn and escapes the evil
wizard to come and fetch Sudsakorn - and with the help of the local prince
and princess - kids not yet in their teens -, he managges to retrieve his
magic cane and reveal the wizard of Panom Island as the fraud he is.
Sudsakorn however saves the old man from execution. Sudsakorn is
promised help in his expedition to find his father by the local king, but
first he has to help the king's man to fight a bunch of carnivorous
butterfly people - a fight that's only won thanks to Sudsakorn's magic cane
... Sudsakorn's dad Apaimanee in the meantime has been taken captive by
evil king Usalen (Phanudet Watanasuchart), who challenges Apaimanee's
brother Srisuwan (Woravit Kaewphet) to an ultimate showdown - a showdown
Usalen uses unfair means to win when he has run out of other option. But
just when he's about to annihilate Srisuwan and his army, Sudsakorn arrives
and evens the odds with his magic cane, ultimately helping Srisuwan to
victory, which leads to Apaimanee's release. In the end, Apaimanee saves
Usalen from execution though, just as Sudsakorn has shown mercy to the
wizard of Panom Island. Old-fashioned in its narrative
techniques, Sudsakorn nevertheless uses state-of-the-art (but far
from perfect) CGI effects to bring its fantasy narrative to full bloom -
and in all fairness, the film looks pretty well-conceived, with its
massive use of CGI paired with a bunch of lavish sets and costumes. But
while the whole thing might look posh, it feels a tad cold and impersonal at
times, with too much emphasis put on the film's effects rather than its
characters, and that the film is rather episodic in structure and its two
main narrative threads (the story of Sudsakorn and that one of his father)
only come together in the end, and not all convincingly at that, does not
help either. That all said, the whole thing is still a nice spectacle, but
that's pretty much all it is.
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