9/12 ForReel Score | 4/5 Stars

Indie filmmaking sometimes happily resides within the constraints of limited budgets, exhibited on-screen in the form of single locations and small casts, often resulting in a play-like quality. Dream! is inspired by the stage, but it isn’t a play - it’s a musical. It pushes indie filmmaking to the absolute extreme, with sweeping landscapes, literal cross-country travel, and an enormous cast. Boasting the title of being Thailand’s first ever musical, Dream! is a wonderful, Disney-like fairytale about a little girl who treks across the country in the wake of her mother’s death.

At 135 minutes long, it’s truly epic filmmaking, but the runtime never lags. The plot isn’t particularly complicated, with an almost Alice In Wonderland-type structure. In place of Alice we have Lek, and in place of Wonderland we have Thailand. We see her travelling from one end of the country to another meeting one eccentric character after the other, each receiving their own little 15 minute self-contained vignette. She meets a spoiled young girl desperate for a friend, a charming con-man who takes her under his wing, and a homeless man living off the land. In true Disney-style, a lesson is learned from each episode, and were a young girl to undertake such an adventure in reality, we would be terrified for her life. But this isn’t real-life, and proudly so. It says so in the title; the moment the film starts, the dreamscape begins.

Dream! is pure escapism. On paper, it all sounds quite serious: recently orphaned child, treks across the country hunted by her legitimately evil step-father, but we truly are in Disneyland here, and the film is all the stronger for it. Said step-father is played like a pantomime villain - threatening, but not too threatening. The stakes are real and present, but we never truly feel scared for our hero, and thank goodness for it. This is Thailand’s fairytale, and what a pleasure it is to spend 135 minutes inside it.

The performances are strong across the board, with Amata Masmalai as our central figure delivering the goods with energy and passion. She’s tender but strong. Your heart will bleed for her, but we know she can hack it. She’s scrappy, like all good Disney heroines. Adam Kaokept is a highlight as a travelling conman. There’s an almost Dick Van Dyke-style energy to his performance with his charming eyes and toothy grin. It’s clear he has a background in musicals, and he stands out from the crowd with his cheeky charisma, playing the central role in one of the film’s best vignettes. Similarly, Kathaya Chongprasith is fantastic as Namwaan, the complete antithesis to Lek, but equally as heartbreaking. Chongprasith channels her inner Veruca Salt to hilarious and insanely watchable perfection, but she brings a warm humanity to the character. There’s a sadness behind the eyes, and it’s clear that both girls are suffering, in vastly, enormously different ways.

The music is good, if a little samey at times, but the lyrics and the vocal performances keep things moving onward. There’s a few too many examples of Lek marching through the fields as the sun sets, as beautiful as the scenery may be, but it’s all nice enough. Which brings us to the star of the show: the country of Thailand. Dream! serves as an affectionate love letter to the nation, from its stunning scenery to its eccentric menagerie of characters. This is armchair-cinema at its best; for an at-home trip to Thailand, simply watch this movie and you will be transported.

Admittedly, the film lacks the sharp sheen and breathless cinematography that we have come to expect from modern Hollywood musicals. But this is not a Hollywood musical, and so its jankiness can be forgiven. It’s rough around the edges, and the filmmaking is a little scrappy, but it’s hard not to be moved by Dream! It’s joy in motion-picture form, and you’ll leave the theatre resisting the urge to smile.

Raindance 2025 | Movie Review: "Dream!"; A Dream Come True For Thailand Filmmaking