Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Don't get me wrong--I don't think of this as a case of the emperor having no clothes. There is a mystical hypnotism to this film, but to anyone like me brought up on a steady diet of Hollywood films, there's also a lot of WTF?
The film centers around a man named Boonmee who is dying of kidney disease. He is seen after by a sister-in-law, a nephew, and a caretaker who is Laotian (apparently Thais have a prejudice against Laotians, thinking they smell bad). One night at dinner Boonmee's wife, who has been dead for years, shows up. Then his son, who disappeared years ago, shows up, looking like Sasquatch. It seems he has mated with a creature called a "ghost monkey," and now wanders the forest.
The film then slips into different scenes, presumably the past lives of Boonmee, if we can trust the title. The most interesting sequence is of a princess, her face disfigured, who is born by litter to a lake. When she looks into the lake her reflection is of a beautiful young woman. She hears a voice, and it is a catfish. She gives him an offering of jewelry, and then she lies back and allows the catfish to have his way with her. Yes, that is not a typo.
The ending has a monk visiting the sister-in-law and a young girl in a motel room. He takes a shower, and then they go out to eat. Except they also stay in the motel, watching TV. Weerasethakul, in an interview, explains this as time splitting in two. Okay.
I suspect this film is more understandable to those who are Buddhist, and have a deeper understanding of Thai culture. Certainly Western civilization is also full of superstitions about spirits living side by side with the living, but this film is even more rooted in ghosts crossing over.
I didn't hate this film, but I didn't love it, either. I see it more as a curiosity, a chance to glimpse a different world and different type of movie-making.
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