Flying high

Published on February 2, 2008

Ever wondered what the City of Angels looks like from the air? Well, if you're a fan of Thanit Jitnukul's new adventure drama "Rak Siam Thao Fah" ("First Flight"), which is currently showing in cinemas around Bangkok, you might just win a chance to find out.

Production company Avant has joined up with SGA Airline and Major Cineplex for "The First of Yours, The First of the Siam Aviation", a special activity that will take nine lucky winners up into the skies on February 9 for a spectacular bird's eye view of the capital in the company of actress Songporn Thongmark.

The nine will also visit the Royal Thai Air Force museum to learn about Thai aeronautical history from an aviation expert. Last but not least, they will have their picture taken with several historic planes, veterans of the first and second world wars.

To be eligible for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, just ask for a coupon while paying for your ticket at the box office, write a brief story of your dream, add your address and then drop it into the box provided at the theatre. The deadline is next Tuesday (February 5) and the lucky winners will be announced the following week both at the theatre and the website Firstflightthemovie.com.

The film tells the story of the early history of aviation in Siam and starts in 1912 when Lieutenant Colonel Luang Kaj Yuthakarn (Kajornsak Ratananisai) was one of three Thais sent to learn flying at the national flying school in France. Upon his return, the Flying Division was established in Siam making it the first country in Asia to have an aviation programme. Luang Kaj encountered many obstacles in this effort, not least of which was the resistance from some members of the Royal family, who thought it was nonsense.

Luang Kaj persevered. First, he had to train his own pilots with the help of his French flight instructor Pierre Pupong (played by Tom Claytor). His first intake of students was made up of five commissioned officers and one non-commissioned officer, Duong Dejchimplee (Sornram Thepitak), a farm boy.

The film gives wing to two dreams, Luang Kaj's to set up an aviation programme in Siam, and Duong's dream to fly. It tells of the days when planes were made of delicate webs of wood and pilots were made of iron.

"First Flight" is the only Thai movie to date that's taken to the skies for real aerials, which give added realism to this tribute to the dreams and courage of the aviation pioneers in the Kingdom.

Four months was spent on production and five months on shooting. Altogether, it's taken four years to make the movie at a total cost of Bt43 million.

"Our first task was to look for the right location to accurately capture those historic days. The second was to shoot the bird's eye-view scenes of the planes in the air, and the last was to use computer graphics in the war scenes," explained the director during a recent press conference at SF Cinema, CentralWorld.

As for tales of derring-do from the filming, a grinning Sornram had this to offer: "I risked my life filming one scene. Playing the role of a farm boy meant I had to ride an old-fashioned bicycle along a small earth dyke on the edge of a paddy field."

Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul

The Nation