The movie tells the story of the warrior King Naresuan the Great, who liberated Siam from Burmese control during the 16th century.

With the release of his long-awaited film, the 64-year-old director - who is popularly known as Than Mui - has once again become the talk of the town due to the debate surrounding his latest work.

Unlike "Suriyothai", which was based on historical chronicles, Naresuan is character-based and therefore more dramatic.

"It's the legend of King Naresuan, which is a blend of history, plausibility and imagination," said the director, who worked with historian Sunate Chutinatharanond of Chulalongkorn University, an expert on Thai-Burmese history.

It is commonplace for debate to arise when filmmakers use historical tales as a basis for a dramatic feature. For example, many Christians objected to the "Da Vinci Code", arguing that it was inappropriate and portrayed Christ in a negative light.

Than Mui has been answering complaints about the project since filming began three years ago.

Among the issues debated are whether the film is historically accurate given the fancy costumes that are used and the battle scenes that look like they take place on Hollywood sets.

Making a film based on history always stirs up debate among historians and academics. Does MC Chatrichalerm mind the debate?

"I don't give a [damn]. Debates that are held for the sake of spreading knowledge are fine with me. But don't make it a personal attack. There have been many comments posted on the Internet, such as on pantip.com. But I don't care about personal comments made against me," the director says.

Even though the director himself says that the film is not an historical documentary, historians and academics are still concerned that the film will portray Thai history in the wrong way. As the story of King Naresuan has been passed down from generation to generation, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction, says Sanate. He added that the stories were passed down orally for 200 years before being written down.

As co-writer on the project, Sunate joined Than Mui to survey rivers, villages, ancient temples and encampments along the Thai-Burmese border. He studied more than 100 chronicles from Thai, Burmese and European archives, stood on former battlegrounds and traced old army routes through jungles, rivers, hills and border towns, including villages at the centre of the conflict.

However, Thais in general have not cared much about the country's history. The debate spurred by the film marks a new chapter for us. Sunate and his fellow historians will debate the film and the history of Thailand and Burma on Wednesday at 5.45pm at Siam Paragon Theatre 8.

Stepping back from the discussion concerning the film's accuracy, it does blend much of the arts and culture from both Burma and Thailand. The scenes depicting both the Thai and Burmese palaces are fascinating as are those featuring delicate golden crafted wooden seats for kings, Buddha statues and golden royal weapons. Although it's not the best, the soundtrack features contemporary sounds mixing orchestral music, traditional Thai tunes and world music. The film also offers a rare performance of the Burmese art form of string puppetry, while traditional Thai dances show how delicate and beautiful our culture is.

The filmmaker and his team went to New Zealand to learn how to create light plastic weaponry from "King Kong" director Peter Jackson's team in New Zealand.

"King Kong" and "Lord of the Rings" artistic director Dan Hennah and artistic manager Chris Hennah flew here to advise the filmmakers in creating the massive sets needed for "The Legend of King Naresuan".

Jackson's teams also learned costume techniques here. The costumes used in "Lord of the Rings" are similar to those of "Suriyothai". Thai craftsmanship is very unique, even though many don't make use of it. We call this exchanging oranges (from Thailand) for apples (from New Zealand).

A strong social commentary runs through "The Legend of King Naresuan", according to the director. "This film portrays social commentary that has happened during the past 500 years. Watching the film and reinterpreting characters, you will get that message. I never tell that to audiences directly. What I can say is if we are still fighting each other, we will lose our nation."

Film is film. It cannot change our history. And in this case, the story of King Naresuan is still the subject of debate. Besides entertaining us, if the film inspires us to study more about our history it will be more useful. Experts and academics should open their minds, study more and keep debate open. Perhaps the discoveries made by the film's director and Sunate during the course of their research for the film may lead us to learn something new about our history.

  Phatarawadee Phataranawik