Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives [DVD]

`Uncle Boonmee' is a curious collage of art cinema which demonstrates the distance between mainstream Hollywood movies and the everyday culture of the Far East. We first saw it at an arts centre and it was obviously unrewarding for a significant segment of the audience who exited stage left after half an hour. The pacing is languid in the extreme while much of the meaning is obliquely obscure. Yet overall the experience of watching `Uncle Boonmee' was a positive one - it may be mysterious and wilfully weird, but it was also intriguing and delicately involving.

Part of the reason for our confusion is that this is the final part of a series of short films and video installations from northern Thailand, near the border with communist Laos. These examine the history of the area in the 1960s when a Communist uprising in Thailand was aggressively suppressed by the Thai authorities. So it's hardly surprising that many of the underlying themes to `Uncle Boonmee' will leave the casual viewer somewhat bewildered.
However, the film's main theme of impending death and possibly being reunited with loved ones in the hereafter is universal and needed no translation or explanation. Boonmee is a successful hill farmer, dying of kidney failure. In his final days his missing family return to nurse him - or perhaps to guide him on his final journey. The appearance of the spirit of his dead wife at the dinner table is handled with delightful matter-of-factness. `You must be hungry' says his dead wife's living sister... and after a shocked moment, the group settles back down to eat. It's as if the boundary between life and death becomes permeable as one of us approaches it, and Boonmee's love for his wife has tethered her spirit to the mortal coil. In the scenes between Boonmee and his wife the film achieves an immense emotional intensity without ever becoming sentimental in the slightest.

The different stages of `Uncle Boonmee' are filmed in different styles. The opening chapters are very, very slow; a study in the tedium of a long car journey contrasts with a cow's languid progress through a meadow. It's fair to say that nothing much happens, and it takes a long time not happening. Later segments are presented as semi-documentary, or in stills, or like an old-fashioned costume drama. The change in presentation keeps the viewer slightly confused and adds to the film's disjointed feel. Also, much of it is presented in near-darkness, which is either atmospheric gloom or a dratted nuisance (but it does mean that the sub-titles are easy to read).
However, the subtle lighting makes the arrival and departure of the spirits all the more meaningful, and you start to believe that there may be a personality lurking in the foliage of every frame... and red glowing eyes will follow you home.

I suspect that some of the scenes aren't intended to make any kind of literal sense, so gave up worrying about what went on between the princess and the catfish. The ending is deliberately odd, too. But the emotional essence of the story is captured in some moments of every day honesty - the sharing of honey, fresh from the hive; the gentle dedication of Boonmee's assistants as they tend to his medical needs. And in the background lurks the political conflict between the Thai and the Lao, played out in rural fields between workers and farmers.
Not an easy film to love, and one which provides more questions than answers. But worth experiencing.

8/10

If nothing else, Uncle Boonmee graphically illustrates the cultural differences between East and West.

Set in a society where spirits and reincarnation are accepted realities, Uncle Boonmee tells the tale of a terminally ill man preparing for death by interacting and making his peace with the spirit world. It is one of the most ponderous and meditative films I've ever seen, with lots of almost static shots and long silent pauses. In fact, I was on the verge of pressing the fast-forward button on a few occasions, when the next scenario opened into something quite profound and beautiful. In particular, the princess and the catfish section and Boonmee leading the others to the depths of a primordial cave, where blind albino fish swim in a tiny pool and where he believed he was first born, were memorable and haunting. Several other scenes though I simply did not get. Amongst the wtf moments were the static shots of the militia with the man in the unconvincing gorilla suit and the seemingly pointless scene of the young monk taking a shower.

Furthermore, I didn't really get any satisfying sense of closure by the ending, which just kinda peters out. Extras on the Blu-ray include an interview with the director, which sheds some (but not much) light on his motivation and intentions behind this movie.

So there we have it; an occasionally beautiful and profound film, but which may be simply too alien and impenetrable for most Western viewers. If you're open minded though, Boonmee is certainly worth a look and I have no regrets in spending a couple of hours in its sometimes mesmerising but sometimes baffling and frustrating company.

Proceed with caution. 2010's Palme d'Or winner is a mystifying, unfathomable meditation on the twilight period between the conclusion of life and the beginning of death. Without ever quickening its snail's pace, it presents a series of intriguing tableaux in which the eponymous uncle quietly ends his days surrounded by his nearest and dearest. But the idiosyncracies of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's style won't be to everyone's taste. His story features ghosts, taciturn monkey-men and a sex scene between a woman and a catfish. (Yes, you read that right.) It refuses to meet the audience's need for answers and explanations, resolutely staying away from any Occidental notions of how a narrative ought to work. Having said that, I can't deny that I found it quite compelling... but don't ask me to explain what it's about.