Interesting article about combining Cambodian history and politics. Worth the read.

A Long-Dead Cambodian King Is Back — and He Looks Familiar
By JULIA WALLACE DEC. 6, 2017

PREY NOKOR KNUNG, Cambodia — Once upon a time in this remote corner of Cambodia, a bold young temple servant raised an army, overthrew an unjust king and saved a nation.

He could walk on water, make dragons do his bidding and shoot four arrows at once from the same bow. During his brief 16th-century reign, he invented Cambodia’s first currency, and he pioneered the concept of class consciousness three centuries before Marx.

So goes the unlikely legend of Sdech (or King) Kan, once remembered, if at all, as a minor usurper of the throne. Now he seems to be everywhere, thanks to Prime Minister HE — another common man turned near-absolute ruler, who has been so intent on identifying himself with the semi-mythical figure that some suspect he considers himself the king’s reincarnation.

At least seven statues of Kan have gone up across Cambodia in recent years, all with facial features strongly resembling Mr. HE’s. Most were commissioned by wealthy officials and businessmen to show fealty to the authoritarian prime minister, said Astrid Noren-Nilsson, a lecturer at Lund University in Sweden who specializes in Cambodian politics.

In August, a movie called “His Royal Highness Sdech Kan” was released to great fanfare, touted as the most expensive Cambodian film ever made, at more than $1 million. It was paid for by Ly Yong Phat, a businessman with close ties to Mr. HE.
Trailer:


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/worl ... h-kan.html

Looks like most of that million was spent on the Cambodia beer voice over guy, because the SFX sure can't have cost much.

More on the subject for anyone interested.

A previous article was written on the same subject last year by Sebastian Strangio, author of HE's Cambodia.
February 18, 2016 12:00 pm JST
Spinning the myth of a 16th-century king as elections loom in Cambodia
SEBASTIAN STRANGIO
- The former capital of the 16th century Cambodian King Sdech Kan is a sleepy place, filled with birdsong and that particular air of shabby mysticism that seems to surround pagodas in rural parts of Cambodia. Nothing much is left of the old city, known as Srolop Prey Nokor, except checkerboards of parched rice paddies and the remains of the broad moat and earthworks that once surrounded the capital. Inside, the only real attraction is a small pagoda where a statue of Sdech Kan rises in front of a newly built temple compound enclosing two crumbling pre-Angkorian ruins.

The statue shows the king as an archer mounted on a fierce-looking stallion -- a typical warrior pose. The most significant thing is that the king's face bears a deliberate resemblance to a successor whose "reign" recently entered its 32nd year: Prime Minister HE...
https://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/201402 ... n-Cambodia

Also cited in the article is A. Noren-Nilsson, and her article Performance as (re)incarnation: The Sdech Kân narrative, as well as her book, Cambodia's Second Kingdom: Nation, Imagination, and Democracy.
Astrid Noren-Nilsson
Cornell Southeast Asia Program 2016


October 3, 2017 Nick Cheesman
Billed as “an exploration of the role of nationalist imaginings, discourses, and narratives in Cambodia since the 1993 reintroduction of a multiparty democratic system,” Cambodia’s Second Kingdom: Nation, Imagination, and Democracy (Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2016) pays special attention to how competing nationalistic imaginings are a prominent part of contestation in the country’s post-war reconstruction politics.
These imaginings, the book’s author Astrid Noren-Nilsson argues, constitute resources with which parties obtain popular support and win elections. In making her case, she draws on an impressive array of primary sources, including extensive interview data with members of Cambodia’s political elite.

By the way, if anyone has access to Performance as (re)incarnation: The Sdech Kân narrative I'd be interested in reading it.

Apparently, if I've got it right, Kan fucked up in the end and bad shit happened.....just sayin.

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This is great stuff. Ly Yong Phat, what a name. You couldn't make it up. Was he the guy who had a villa on the north side of Sihanouk, on the corner of the street where the Mobitel office is? The guy who had hundreds or thousands of Khmers outside on New Year morning waiting for their envelope with 6000 riel or something. I remember it well, I lived nearby. HE banned it years ago, too bloody obvious.