Burmese Guerrilla Veteran Rises Again—in a Rambo Movie
By Yeni
May 18, 2007—An acting career was far from the mind of Maung Maung Khin when he fled Burma following the 1988 uprising and joined the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, an armed group fighting alongside the Kachin Independence Army in the Burma-China border region.
Maung Maung Khin, from Mogaung in upper Burma, became battle-hardened in years of combat. He experienced the notorious Kachin massacre of February 12, 1992, when 15 ABSDF fighters were executed as suspected spies by their comrades. He saw the KIA seal a ceasefire with the hated Burmese army. Then he decided to make for Thailand.
Life was still tough, as he struggled for a livelihood in Chiang Mai. He was 40, with no clear prospects—until the wheel of fortune stopped on his number. The Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone and casting staff were combing northern Thailand for actors to play Burmese army men in a new Rambo movie.
The casting qualifications were “Burmese male, 32-40, military-looking man, character face, unlikable.” Maung Maung Khin and a long-time friend, Aung Aung, also an ABSDF veteran, matched the profile—even though in real life they are likeable enough.
Three hundred applications were received for the roles, and two well-known Thai actors were among those who made the short list. But Maung Maung Khin was confident that he and Aung Aung were the best men for the job. “We were sure nobody knew better than us how to portray Burmese army officers,” Maung Maung Khin told The Irrawaddy.
He and Aung Aung play two Burmese army officers, Maj Tint and Lt Maung Aye, who tangle with Rambo during a mission the American tough guy makes into Burma to rescue abducted missionaries.
Although their roles are important in the action plot of the US $50 million movie, neither will grow rich from their big screen debut. “When they asked me how much I wanted, I had no idea,” Maung Maung Khin said. “When they offered 15,000 baht ($428) a day, I said that’s fine.”
Maung Maung said the experience of acting in a Hollywood movie was more important to him than money. And the film would direct international attention to the situation in his country, he added.
Shan refugees and migrants who were recruited as extras to play Burmese soldiers and bandits were reportedly paid 300 baht ($8.50) a day, plus meals.
Burma is currently a hot Hollywood property—figuring for the second time in less than two years in action movies with Burmese settings. In the first, Stealth, a fictitious air raid is made on a terrorist cell in Rangoon.
The US magazine Entertainment Weekly reported that Stallone found Burma when he sought advice from the journal Soldier of Fortune on scripting a film featuring “the most critical man-doing-inhumanity-to-man situation.”
