And then I saw Thailand’s biggest pop star.

I was waiting to see a movie at the luxe Siam Paragon shopping center and somehow wandered into a press conference and performance by Tata Young. I had no idea who she was or what exactly was going on. I just followed the sound and the lights, and I think everyone assumed I was another music journalist. I stood around drinking a free soda while she answered some questions in Thai and then performed a couple of songs. I had to ask a magazine writer who she was, and he informed me that she was only Thailand’s biggest pop star. I also learned that the point of the press conference was to announce that she’s planning to break into the US market–so there you have it, first-hand reportage from me to you. I’m sad I wasn’t carrying my camera. By the way, her current hit single is called “El Nin-YO!”

The film I saw was King Naresuan. It’s the biggest blockbuster in Thai history, the first part of a nine-hour trilogy about the 16th century king who liberated Siam from Burmese control. I wouldn’t recommend rushing out and trying to find it, although there were some fairly spectacular battle sequences and lavish sets and costumes. What it did offer for me, mainly, was insight into the Thai national identity. For one thing, I see the reverence for their king a little more. Bloodlines are very important in this film, as is a mythical connection between the people and their land, the blood and the soil. The king here really is more than a figurehead, but a living link to the land and to Thailand’s greatest historical heroes.

You also get a sense of the deep-seated Thai/Burma antagonism. The Burmese king is not an entirely unsympathetic character, but almost all the other Burmese are arrogant, sneering, and duplicitous. I’m not sure if this film was more overtly nationalistic than similar Western epics; it just might have seemed that way because I was seeing it without much built-in context. But it was basically a Thai propaganda film, for Thais. It’s very interesting to hear the stories a culture tells to itself.

I did a pub quiz the other night with Lyndsay and the expat crew at a place called The Dubliner. Our team, “The Lyndsay” came in second. (Out of four teams. Shut up. Like you know how many yards are in a furlong.)