Items filtered by date: July 2025

In an era when movie musicals can live or die for a myriad of reasons, it’s tough to reconcile with the idea of actually making one, unless you’re chasing a success, such as Universal’s 2024 smash hit Wicked. In all fairness, that film took years to come to the screen after a massively successful run as a stage musical. There was an audience already in place to embrace it, and it not only managed to satisfy its fan base, but bring in outsiders in droves, becoming something of a pop culture phenomenon. It also had an extravagant budget for costumes, sets, make-up, and visual effects on par with many bigger budget comic book movies. Yet despite the ongoing notion that the movie musical is something of a dead genre, it was wildly successful. That’s certainly something that Hollywood, and even entities outside of Hollywood, would want to replicate.

None of that has anything whatsoever to do with Dream!, but it gives you some perspective when a true passion project comes down the line that others may dismiss as woefully derivative. Dream! is nothing of the sort. Instead, it’s the first full-length movie musical made in Thailand in fifty years, complete with an all Thai cast, composer, and orchestra. Directed by actor, writer, and cinematographer Paul Spurrier, and co-written with Jiriya Spurrier, Dream! pays homage to the classic movie musicals of old, with direct allusions to Oliver!, The Wizard of Oz, The Music Man, and The Sound of Music, among others, while establishing a fairy tale atmosphere.

Lek (Amata Masmalai) is a virtuous young girl with an unhappy home life in the mountains of Northern Thailand, dreaming of a day when her and her mother can find happiness. When her mother tragically dies, Lek runs away from home, seeking out a better life on her own terms. Along the way, she meets a variety of characters—some who want to help her, some who want to harm her, and others who choose to ignore her. As a consequence, Lek’s naivete will be tested, while also inadvertently teaching those that she meets the value of being a part of the world. [Read on here...]