Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010) - ; Art House Rating:

Uncle Boonmee is just as fascinating as it is frustrating, but even if you find it slow-moving and difficult to grasp, it's episodic enough to come to a scene you will totally get in to, and it certainly expresses universal human emotions even while filtering them through a Thai cultural and historical perspective. Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has degrees in architecture and film so his keen eye is apparent at all times. He's also something of a pop culture junkie who is well aware of most all of Thailand's TV and film history and intermingles that with his love of movies as diverse as Star Wars and La Jetee. However, he's a long way from Quentin Tarantino, even if he plays tricks with time and has the guts to basically make a G-rated film where a princess gets it on with a catfish.

The film begins rather slowly in the jungle following a buffalo getting stuck in the mud. It resembles a leisurely documentary or the equivalent of someone taking a hike in the forest to try to get away from it all. The movie does take you to a different world and culture so it will undoubtedly split audiences between those who find it a breathtaking work of art and those who think it's a fractured film looking for a story and wanting a faster pace. I'm probably in the middle somewhere. The next major scene reminded me of my vacations in New Zealand and Alaska where we rented a car and my daughter Sarah videotaped most of our trip from the backseat. This section in the car introduces Auntie Jen (Jenjira Pongpas) who is coming to visit her brother Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) at his tamarind farm before he dies from kidney disease. The director does include many autobigraphical details since his own father died from kidney failure.

The film picks up with the introduction of Boonmee's dead wife's ghost appearing, followed shortly by his long-lost son turning up but he's been transformed into a "monkey ghost" who looks like a cross between a Jawa and a naked black Wookiee, both characters from Star Wars. I believe that Apichatpong knowingly made this character that way to reinforce the audience's perceptions on how seriously to take his fantasy. Although most of the movie seems deadly earnest, the monkey ghost and catfish scenes do show the director to have a playful side. The son's story about why and how he disappeared and changed is the film's highlight, at least until we come to the Princess/Waterfall scene. That scene, shot with a filter at a lush, beautiful waterfall which John Boorman would die for, moves the film into an even farther-out fantasy level and introduces a character which seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the film, unless you consider it one of Boonmee's past lives. There are some good old school F/X here too involving mirrors passing as reflections seen by the Princess in the lake. Needless to say, the Princess's hook-up with the catfish must be seen to be believed.

There are other beautiful and bizarre scenes but I don't want to take away the mysteries revealed and created as the film progresses to its inconclusive conclusion at a karaoke bar. But I will say that the scene inside the cave is really quite spectacular and reminded me of my trip to Carlsbad Caverns, but here the interior of the cave also sometimes resembles a starry night sky although it's the sparkly reflection of the cave's ceiling. Just when the film seems to come back to the "real world" with Uncle Boonmee's funeral, things get almost Lynchian in their weirdness. Auntie Jen acts like she barely knew Boonmee although we saw her share quality time with him throughout the entire film. Then Boonmee's medical assistant turns out to be a totally different character than we ever knew. To top it all off, some of the characters are able to see themselves doing other activities as if there are two of them "living" at the same time. This bright world away from the mysterious jungle turns out to be as bizarre as the world full of dead wives and monkey ghost sons. It certainly makes the Thai culture seem vibrantly alive; either that, or they're massively deluded, but who am I to say such a thing since it's normal for them.

As usual, some will have a problem with my rating. I watched it three times and will probably seek out some other films from this director. I'm sure that some here will love it while others will think it's boring and pretentious. I enjoy it the most by thinking of it as a cultural compendium of Thai history, family life and pop culture, being conducted by an expert with an artist's eye. What it lacks in cohesion and comprehension, it makes up for originality and strangeness. Besides, it's a nice way to take an exotic vacation without the hassle of planes and cars. To give you a taste, here's the trailer.