In many ways, choosing to remake Plae Kao was as equally challenging an endeavour for director ML Pundhevanop. In 1998, the 1977 version was listed as one of the world's 360 classic movies by the Museum of the Moving Image in London with Sight & Sound magazine. In 2011, the film was also chosen by the Thai Film Archive as one of 25 Thai films considered to be national treasures.
Chaiyapol Julien Poupart and Davika Hoorne in Plae Kao. Photos courtesy of Sahamongkol film international
Even before the new film was released, ML Pundhevanop's choice of leading actor caused quite a stir. Both Chaiyapol and Davika Hoorne, who is playing Kwan's lover Riam, are Thai-Belgian and both have quite clear discernible European features.
Whereas Sorapong and Nantana were seen as the very epitome of a rural Thai hero and heroine, both Chaiyapol and Davika had to rely quite heavily on make-up, especially to darken their skin.
"But I am Thai," says Chaiyapol sternly. Despite the cheerful and cavorting characters he often plays in TV series and films, Chaiyapol doesn't smile all that often and tends to look quite serious, even when he professes he isn't. When he agrees to pose for a few photographs with fans during the interview, it was difficult to see if he was glad or genuinely upset by the intrusion.
"I've never thought of me being half Thai. I don't think about how I look, I just wanted to play this role. The director and I have never talked about this. People said Sorapong looks very Thai but I'm asking you honestly, 'Has anybody ever seen what the real Kwan and Riam actually look like?'."
Chaiyapol argued that painting their skin darker had nothing to do with making them look "more Thai", but simply to look like peasants who had to work under the scorching Sun all day.
Plae Kao
In fact, the issue that he grew up and spent his entire life in Bangkok is, for many, perhaps more problematic than how he looks. Astride a buffalo, Kwan is the picture of an archetypal Thai farmer. But for Chaiyapol, working like a farmer as opposed to just looking like one was much more difficult. An interesting dynamic of the working relationship between Chaiyapol and ML Pundhevanop was that when rehearsals began, the script was often changed as filming progressed.
"At first we didn't even know who was going to play Riam," said Chaiyapol. "The script wasn't completely done and ML Pundhevanop would write more as I rehearsed my role. When I went to learn how to ride a buffalo, learn rice farming and about the way of life in the countryside, he would go along with me and develop the script along the way."
Documenting the rural Thai way of life for future generations was an important aim of the director, according to Chaiyapol.
"During dialogue with friends, for example, he would incorporate the action of planting rice in the field and in the courting scene between Kwan and Riam, they would be harvesting rice."
Chaiyapol himself would learn more about farming and rural lifestyles as filming progressed, through speaking to the elderly couple who owned the rice field where the film was shot.
"Even though they are not from the same era of the story, their way of life has been pretty much the same since they were young and have still retained the traditional way of rice farming," said Chaiyapol. "It was especially great because they are lovers and would always smile when telling stories of their past."
Even though Chaiyapol insisted that this is just another role he has taken up, this is undoubtedly a huge step in his acting career. He began acting in TV commercials, before moving on to star in TV series. After a few series, however, the offers dried up and he didn't land a TV role for another year. That was four years ago and, Chaiyapol recounts, one of the bad moments of his career. He explains, with a refreshing degree of honesty, that this was due to his acting at the time and being unable to deliver what the directors wanted.
Plae Kao
"I was very new to the industry then," said Chaiyapol. "Of course I felt very down but it was perfectly natural. I couldn't do what they wanted, so they had to choose someone better which is the same in any other career.
"ML Panthevanop was always there to support me. He told me to focus on my studies which was my priority and I went to acting class with him whenever I could. He said that I should get myself ready and that everything has its right moment."
And this is that moment for Chaiyapol. His role as Kwan is far tougher than anything that he's done in the past and the character, who displays a range of emotions and feelings, is much more complicated and conflicted.
"He would go from being so romantic to angry, from being so happy to being so scared and then back to being angry and sad," said Chaiyapol.
"One difficult scene I had to do was when Kwan sees Riam for the first time after she'd been away for three years. It's hard to imagine nowadays with stuff like Facebook and Line how we would feel if our girlfriend had been gone for three years."
As the release date draws near, obvious comparisons are likely to be drawn and opinions as to whether the remake will be better than original debated. For Chaiyapol, however, this makes no sense at all.
"Why would you keep trying to make a comparison?", snapped Chaiyapol.
His tone probably indicative of his passion in what he does, rather than the actual question.
"This is a new film. New director, new interpretation, new actors, new everything. If we are to be stuck with the question of whether it's going to be better than the old version or not, nobody is going to dare do it. And when is it that we're going to see such a great classic made into a film again?"
