Hot Spot

PLAYING WITH FIRE In Mekong Full Moon Party, this year's surprise Thai hit film about the Naga fireballs, a hapless television journalist is desperate to expose the phenomenon as a hoax. A month after the movie's October release, Thai television station ITV screened a documentary claiming that the fireballs were merely AK-47 tracer rounds fired by bored Lao soldiers on the opposite bank of the river. Mere coincidence? Or are strange, dark forces at work?

Director Jira Malikul's whimsical feature posits that the fireballs are set off by Lao monks, not soldiers. The dreamy opening sequence follows loincloth-clad divers as they plant clay "eggs" along the riverbed. Illuminated boats sweep by above, lighting up the expectant faces of the throng assembled along the riverbank. Then the pink fireballs burst skyward from the water to resounding cheers. The mythical snake is breathing fire again, welcoming the Buddha back to earth.

The film draws us into the world of Bak Khan, a former temple boy from Laos who has come to Nong Khai province from Bangkok and is appalled at the commercial exercise the festival has become: full of crass city slickers getting drunk, brawling and gambling. As he struggles with his faith, he falls for A-Lit, a pretty schoolteacher whose scientist husband is determined to prove the fireballs are a natural phenomenon. Bak Khan wants to expose the charade, especially as the TV crew seems to be closing in on the secret. But his former abbot tries to convince him that there could be merit in fake miracles.

The movie stirred mild dismay among the Buddhist faithful in Nong Khai, home of the actual fireballs. But the ITV documentary has sparked a full-fledged furor. Local politicians have threatened to sue ITV for more than $23 million; incensed residents staged a protest march; and Laos' ambassador to Thailand, Hiam Promjan, said his country was "shocked" by the claim. Real or fake, there seems to be little doubt about the incendiary properties of the fiery orbs.

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