Viewed in
2011
Formats
DVD
Premise
A terminally-ill Thai farmer is visited by relatives, his dead wife's ghost, and long-lost son in the form of a monkey.
Liked
The premise.
Disliked
The way too passive pace.
Thoughts
I wanted to like this.
The story definitely intrigued me, making me wonder what happens next. As for the characters, they were well-written and felt like genuine human beings. With its themes of a dying man coming to terms with his past, sometimes in the form of trippy sequences, I was heavily reminded of Big Fish. Yet it didn't feel like a knock-off.
I know very little of Thailand, so the slice of life element of the film was great exposure to their modern culture, urban and rural worlds. Folks from the United States might see some parallels between how we treat those from South of the border with how Thais treat neighboring Laotians.
By my guess, I'm more patient than the average moviegoer. It's not a good sign that even I was getting annoyed by how slow it was. Occasionally, the lackadaisical pace worked in context of the simple life, soaking in the beautiful Thai wilderness. But as a whole, it was difficult to connect to the characters and stay in the moment when it's full of uncut wide shots that never seem to end. Perhaps director Apichatpong Weerasethakul chose this tempo due to budget constraints, him being too much in love with the landscape, or him channeling Jim Jarmusch. As a director, currently in post, I learned that you cannot have too much coverage (mediums/close ups), so this aspect was glaring.
As per the premise, it got trippy at times. I tend to like weird movies, but it was hard to get on board when those scenes didn't make sense. The ambiguous ending was a good example. But the part that truly came out of nowhere was the scene about the princess and the catfish. For the life of me, I didn't see any connection to the plot. By the way, those curious about the Not Rated rating, I classify this as PG-13 to R territory, depending on your taste of unusual sex scenes.
Overall Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives had interesting ideas and moments, but could've been at least twenty minutes shorter.
What I would change
More cuts and coverage.
