Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Syndromes and a Century)
Starring: Thanapat Saisaymar, Jenjira Pongpas, Sakda Kaewbuadee
Language: Thai
On Blu-Ray + DVD: July 12, 2011
Oh boy, this is probably going to be another unreadable review. After seeing The Tree of Life and now Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, I'm starting to wonder whether this is a weird year for film or if I'm just expanding the types of movies that I'm willing to see. Regardless of which one is to blame, these two films have challenged the boundaries of what I consider to be an entertaining film. Within Uncle Boonmee, you can find horror, comedy, existentialism, tedium, and even fish fellatio blended into a movie that is the very definition of an original film.
To me, one of the most surprising aspects of Uncle Boonmee was that it actually has a narrative that can be followed (as long as you pay attention). Jen (Pongpas) and her son Thong (Kaewbuadee) have come to help her brother-in-law, Boonmee (Saisaymar), who is dying of kidney failure. During supper on the first night of their stay, Boonmee's dead wife and missing son visit in the form of a ghost and an ape, respectively. They discuss their experiences since they left. The rest of the film is more abstract, but seems to play as a recollection of one of Boonmee's past lives in which he was a catfish.
As I've said already, the narrative is hard to follow, but it's there, and if you are willing to pay attention, the film becomes much more rewarding. Many of these scenes, especially those involving the catfish, seem to be randomly spliced together and nonsensical, but once you integrate them into this somewhat cohesive narrative, the philosophical aspects of the film become illuminated within a logical context.
Even if you are unwilling to thread Uncle Boonmee through with a storyline, some of the individual scenes are wonderful on their own. The dinner scene is simply amazing. The scene lasts somewhere around 20 minutes, and a lot of that time is spent on just two or three different camera angles, but the time still flies by as you watch this surreal conversation between a man, his dead wife, and some transformed version of his son. Another example is the film's final scene. This scene incorporates an idea introduced earlier in the film by Boonmee. Without giving anything away, the scene creates another surreal experience for the viewer.
Not that all the scenes in the film are as thought-provoking as these. In fact, the amount of boring, tedious scenes in Uncle Boonmee is nearly equivalent to the number of wonderful ones. A common occurrence in the movie is for a shot to focus on someone lying in bed doing absolutely nothing for 3-5 minutes. There's another scene in which Boonmee and Jen eat honey and then sit around in silence. There's even a scene at the end where we watch a monk take a shower. Not just glimpses or anything; we see the entire shower. Scenes like these make it easy for me to understand the negative reactions that some people have had to this film. Not even in the context of the film do these scenes seem to serve a purpose. Are they supposed to be artistic? Maybe it's just me, but a guy taking a shower isn't artistic.
Uncle Boonmee didn't have the same kind of emotional impact on me that The Tree of Life did, but it still affected me. A lot of the scenes brought out thoughts of spirituality and religion within me, and it was nice to watch a film that evoked positive thoughts of religion instead of negative ones. This film is not for everyone, and even if it is for you, you'll probably end up getting bored with parts of it. Regardless of your personal reaction to it, Uncle Boonmee is a film unlike any other.
Oh boy, this is probably going to be another unreadable review. After seeing The Tree of Life and now Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, I'm starting to wonder whether this is a weird year for film or if I'm just expanding the types of movies that I'm willing to see. Regardless of which one is to blame, these two films have challenged the boundaries of what I consider to be an entertaining film. Within Uncle Boonmee, you can find horror, comedy, existentialism, tedium, and even fish fellatio blended into a movie that is the very definition of an original film.
To me, one of the most surprising aspects of Uncle Boonmee was that it actually has a narrative that can be followed (as long as you pay attention). Jen (Pongpas) and her son Thong (Kaewbuadee) have come to help her brother-in-law, Boonmee (Saisaymar), who is dying of kidney failure. During supper on the first night of their stay, Boonmee's dead wife and missing son visit in the form of a ghost and an ape, respectively. They discuss their experiences since they left. The rest of the film is more abstract, but seems to play as a recollection of one of Boonmee's past lives in which he was a catfish.
As I've said already, the narrative is hard to follow, but it's there, and if you are willing to pay attention, the film becomes much more rewarding. Many of these scenes, especially those involving the catfish, seem to be randomly spliced together and nonsensical, but once you integrate them into this somewhat cohesive narrative, the philosophical aspects of the film become illuminated within a logical context.
Even if you are unwilling to thread Uncle Boonmee through with a storyline, some of the individual scenes are wonderful on their own. The dinner scene is simply amazing. The scene lasts somewhere around 20 minutes, and a lot of that time is spent on just two or three different camera angles, but the time still flies by as you watch this surreal conversation between a man, his dead wife, and some transformed version of his son. Another example is the film's final scene. This scene incorporates an idea introduced earlier in the film by Boonmee. Without giving anything away, the scene creates another surreal experience for the viewer.
Not that all the scenes in the film are as thought-provoking as these. In fact, the amount of boring, tedious scenes in Uncle Boonmee is nearly equivalent to the number of wonderful ones. A common occurrence in the movie is for a shot to focus on someone lying in bed doing absolutely nothing for 3-5 minutes. There's another scene in which Boonmee and Jen eat honey and then sit around in silence. There's even a scene at the end where we watch a monk take a shower. Not just glimpses or anything; we see the entire shower. Scenes like these make it easy for me to understand the negative reactions that some people have had to this film. Not even in the context of the film do these scenes seem to serve a purpose. Are they supposed to be artistic? Maybe it's just me, but a guy taking a shower isn't artistic.
Uncle Boonmee didn't have the same kind of emotional impact on me that The Tree of Life did, but it still affected me. A lot of the scenes brought out thoughts of spirituality and religion within me, and it was nice to watch a film that evoked positive thoughts of religion instead of negative ones. This film is not for everyone, and even if it is for you, you'll probably end up getting bored with parts of it. Regardless of your personal reaction to it, Uncle Boonmee is a film unlike any other.
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