Royal ambition.

(From Bangkok Post)

Byline: Story by SAMILA SUTTISILTUM

The ground is covered in dust that leaves your shoes smudgy. The heat is intense and the mid-winter sun burns into the soil. Even so, cast members walk bare foot at the Surasee Military Base in Kanchanaburi, where MC Chatrichalerm Yukol, aka Than Mui, is shooting the biopic of one of the country's best-known monarchs, King Naresuan the Great (1590 - 1605), scheduled for release late next year.

"We chose Kanchanaburi as the location as it's in line with the actual spot where historical events are believed to have taken place," film director Than Mui said.

According to historical records, Kanchanaburi is where troops of Prince Naresuan, then 29, and those of Phra Maha Uparacha, the Crown Prince of Burma, presumably marched across the province before the King's victory in an elephant battle at Suphan Buri in 1584 that liberated the Siamese from the control of Burma.

From 1569 to 1584, Siam was a vassal of Burma. Prince Naresuan was taken hostage as insurance against further aggression when he was eight years old. He grew up in Burma, where he became well acquainted with Burmese ways, including sword fighting. Later, at 16, the Burmese allowed him to go to Siam to visit his …