Once Upon a Star Review: Originally titled Mon Rak Nak Pak (มนต์รักนักพากย์), the new Thai Netflix film directed by Nonzee Nimibutrr and produced by 18 Tanwa stars Weir Sukollawat Kanaros as Manit, Noona Nuengthida Sophon as Rueangkae, Jirayu La-ongmanee as Kao and Samart Payakaroon as Man. Releasing on October 11, 2023, the film has been written as a love letter to the 60-70s Thai film industry. With a runtime of 138 minutes, the movie is now streaming with English subtitles and dubbed audio for international audiences. 

As spirited members of the travelling pharma-cinema unit, the leading quartet represents a group of live dubbing artists who journey across Thailand to entertain audiences by intermeshing a long-forgotten channel of artistic expression with beloved films. Despite facing roadblocks, the troupe chases its dreams during the Golden Age of Thai cinema. 

Once Upon a Star Netflix Review Contains No Spoilers

Once Upon a Star Review

Given Thailand’s political and socio-cultural map at the time, Once Upon a Star covers quite a few subject matters. With the troupe welcoming a woman as their colleague, they’re met with raised eyebrows from their supervisors. Introducing this one change gets Manit’s group on the road to growth. While the four main characters of this troupe lead the narrative, the story also finds a fifth protagonist in their ever-present companion – their bus – that helps keep the team on the road and disseminate the wonderful charms of their artistry. 

We live in an era where fans of certain content categories prefer to read subtitles rather than watch dubbed versions of movies or shows. While some consider this to be the appropriate “elite” way of watching any title, they also tend to forget that the very medium of accessibility they look down upon or disparage as “cringey” is exactly what helps a large faction of the audience to connect with titles they wouldn’t be able to watch and understand otherwise. 

At a time like this, Once Upon a Star helps bring attention to the crucial importance of dubbing artists and how they help connect members of society to modes of entertainment that may otherwise be unreachable.

The movie is an extended letter of gratitude to the old days of Thai cinema, and by paying tribute to it through such a narratorial approach, the filmmaker has also helped revive the long-forgotten or unknown memories of the same. By bringing it all back to the screen again, Nimibutr does a great job of connecting the long-renounced past with the modern present that may take such devices and methods for granted owing to the ease with which everything is available at our footstep nowadays. 

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New-age audiences will be surprised to see how cinema was brought closer to audiences located in remote surroundings, bridging the gap between cultural advancements at the time and the contemporary people of the age.

With costumes and complementing cinematography, the production value produces a fitting image of the old days most of us will be seeing for the first time. The film is also established as a visual and cinematic tribute to the legendary Thai film actor Mitr Chaibancha, whose death tragically impacted the whole industry and the machinery associated with making his movies accessible to the masses. Through Manit’s troupe of live-dubbing artists, we see them all ambitiously reaching out to their dreams and bringing in new changes to the traditional art form that, in ways, restricted their upward movement.

While the movie is largely a heartfelt account of the Golden era of the Thai film industry, and in ways of Thailand’s topography, its plot is also interjected by subplots correlating to rivalry, jealousy, love, friendships and more. One such sub-plot that breaks the smooth-moving narrative concerned with the beauty of the movie is a love triangle arc between the main characters that becomes an unnecessary hindrance stalling action that truly matters.

It slows the pace and emerges as an overly dramatic intervention that barely adds much to the movie’s magic otherwise. In a similar way, character developments remain inconsistent and uninteresting at certain points. 

Final Thoughts

Once Upon a Star offers an affecting dialogue around the love of cinema, and some final bits of the movie will hit you hard for the same reason. If you’re a fan of this sub-category of films penned as love letters to the cinema, you will enjoy this one too, especially owing to its feel-good road journey. However, some bits of it are too melodramatic for them to be enjoyable. They expand the runtime that should’ve been trimmed down because the movie ends up being too long, which works against the otherwise established pros. 

Once Upon a Star (2023) is now streaming on Netflix.

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