Video on sacking of Ayutthaya goes viral

“The Fall of Ayutthaya”, a clip lasting about seven minutes, uses graphics and animation to detail the historical event and compares the political situation at that time with circumstances today.
The short film was created by Kerati Wannalertsiri. It was chosen to be shown in the “Ploy-Saeng” project of the Thailand Creative and Design Centre last year.
It went public on November 13 but hit the social media only last Sunday when it appeared on the “show clip” page on Facebook. And this time, “The Fall of Ayutthaya” has attracted 32,013 likes and had been shared 47,763 times as of yesterday.
Kerati, 23, graduated in architecture from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, where he directed plays of his faculty. He has also joined the “Your TV” workshop of Nation Channel.
He said theatre taught him about the learning and thinking process and the workshop taught him how to use a video-editing program.
He produced “The Fall of Ayutthaya” for his thesis with the idea that it would be used only as instructional material to teach Thai history. But after he talked with his high school instructors he found flaws in the teaching of history. People do not really make use of the subject. Students are bored and they study Thai history only to pass the exam.
“Nobody learns history and uses it in their daily life but history has more benefits. History has given us lessons to learn from and improve the present. So I created this video to tell them,” he said.
Even though Thailand has a long history, he chose the second fall of Ayutthaya because it almost cost Thais their nation.
He compares the second fall of Ayutthaya and the current political situation because he feels there are some similarities such as corruption and infighting among courtiers who put the status quo before the wellbeing of the people.
“It makes our country weak and we end up losing when an enemy attacks. Now our enemy is the global economic maelstrom, so if Thais aren’t united, we can’t get out of danger.”
The country has developed in aspects such as business and theology but people should develop from their minds, not from outside.
“We should develop virtue.”
Although this video is popular in social media, it can’t make groups such as the red, yellow and multicoloured shirts harmonise, he said. Hopefully, however, they will think about whether what they’re doing is for themselves or all the people, he said.
Some people who watched this video said they couldn’t understand when they studied history. But the video made them understand the second fall of Ayutthaya in seven minutes. Kerati said he would make more videos like this because it doesn’t only talk about history but also makes people think about the country.