Crime Kings

Macho-romantic biopic about a real life outlaw, Sua Bai, who was Lopburi's answer to Robin Hood in the lawless years after the Japanese defeat in 1945, stealing from the rich and corrupt and sharing the proceeds with the villagers who sheltered him. Historiography takes second place to the relationship between the bandit and his nemesis, police captain Ying, who eventually drove him into hiding on a rubber plantation in the south. The surprise is that it's framed less as a cops-and-robbers movie than as a Leone-esque Western. The casting is interesting (swoonsomely handsome leads and dozens of politicians, artists and celebrities in cameo roles) and the whole, though overlong, is executed with a certain zest.