Tropical Malady (2004)

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  October 9, 2011

  blacksheepboy

  Two different stories in tone and narrative combined in the same film: first a naturalist, bucolic gay romance, then a mysterious, enigmatic tale of spirits in a dense forest. Even if creating an absorbing sensorial atmosphere, the whole feels loosely bound together, allowing of ... read moreinfinite interpretations and thus appearing vague and empty in its core.

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  September 17, 2008

  gor41

  Two handed Thai drama, the first part tells the story of a burgeoning gay male romance and the second uses the main actors in a traditional Thai folk tale. Atmospheric and certainly original but it left me cold.

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  October 6, 2006

  gator681

  [font=Century Gothic]The first half of "Tropical Malady" is about the romance between Keng(Banlop Lomnoi), a former soldier and forest ranger who is now unemployed and another man, Tong(Sakda Kaewbuadee). The second half consists of a soldier(possibly also Keng) hunting a tiger.... read more[/font]
  [font=Century Gothic][/font]
  [font=Century Gothic]This paradigm shift is similar to the device that David Lynch used in "Lost Highway" and "Mulholland Drive" but with limited success.(It does not really help these movies because it is the equivalent to pulling the carpet out from under the viewer.) And in "Tropical Malady", it has a similar disorienting effect. Maybe if I knew more about Thailand, then I possibly would have liked the movie more.[/font]

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  November 26, 2010

  anastasia57001

  Weerasethakul's film is hard to describe by regular terms. There is no story here, at least not the way you are used to seeing it. And there is a lot of patience that you have to have to go through the second part of the film, where the camera is just following the hunter through... read more his long journey into the jungle. But I must say I felt that my patience paid off at the end. I loved the ending (which I won't describe here for I wouldn't like to write a spoiler): so simple, so heart-felt, yet so genius.

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  June 16, 2010

  jimbotender

  A contemporary classic of unflinching whistles just like the forest of transformations in the second half of the film. Apichatpong curiously observes the inhabitants of his tale but without intervening in their timid reactions and for what it's worth, an oh-so-dear flirt between ... read morethe men of our story. Shamanic myths and the jungle's hedonistic junction, Tropical Malady captures an almost religious howl and defies the cinematic rules like so many films did before it, only it gets more visible in recent years.

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  June 10, 2011

  xterminal

  Sud Pralad (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)
  
  Cahiers du Cinèma, one of the most respected film journals in the world, named Sud Pralad (literally Strange Beast, though released in the west as Tropical Malady) the best movie of 2004. I'm not s... read moreo sure about that; 2004 was one of the strongest years for movies in quite a while. Spain gave us El Maquinista, Korea Sigaw, Thailand Shutter, Japan Ika Resuraa (okay, I just threw that one in to see if you were paying attention, but it's a darned good time) and Vital, Italy The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, Argentina The Motorcycle Diaries, Norway Nor Noise, Denmark The Green Butchers, England Shaun of the Dead, Germany Der Untergang (the movie pretty much everyone else said was the best of 2004), and I could keep going on all day. Even on Cahiers' home turf, we had Saint Ange, the first film from a young director named Pascal Laugier, who is quickly becoming the best of his generation. But if you're going to go for the willfully obscure, you could do a lot worse than to seek out Apichatpong Weerasethakul, an American-educated Thai filmmaker whose work is well-informed by the Surrealist movement of the thirties and the folktales of his home country. Of course, I'm writing this in 2011, and Weerasethakul is no longer a director about whom most people's knowledge doesn't even stretch as far as how to pronounce his name; Uncle Boonmee Who Can See His Past Lives, Weerasthakul's sixth feature, has been tearing up festivals, including winning the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Maybe he'll finally start getting the recognition he deserves. He should have a decade ago; The Mysterious Object at Noon, his first feature, is a jaw-dropping experience in folklore, the nature of documentary, and the kind of gorgeous cinematography that has pervaded his films ever since. (Uncle Boonmee won for Best Cinematgraphy at Dubai, by the way.) But back in 2004, no one knew who this guy was, and so Sud Pralad, like The Mysterious Object at Noon before it, was sadly neglected, and still is. You should rectify this, though this is not Weerasthakul's best work.
  
  It starts off as a romance (if you passed over this when it popped up on Sundance because they labeled it a comedy, by the way, you can ignore that entirely) between Keng (Banlop Lonmoi in his only feature to date), a disaffected soldier, and Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee, who has appeared in every feature Weerasthakul has made since this; in fact, he reprises his role as Tong in Uncle Boonmee), a young man from Keng's home village. The two of them are hesitant, and there's some difficulty since Keng is a naturally reticent type of guy, but romance blossoms. (There's a great, great scene in a cinema about halfway through the first part, the first scene in the film when we really get a sense that Keng is allowing himself to feel, that is in itself worth the price of admission.)
  
  Halfway through the film, we find ourselves back in Weerasethakul's obsession with Thai folktales, as Tong's role is recast. Keng is still a soldier, but he is now attached to a jungle regiment on the lookout for a supernatural beast, a shaman who can take the form of a tiger. It's been abducting local wildlife and the odd farm animal here and there, presumably for food, throughout the first half of the film, but when it starts taking villagers, it's time for the army to act. We know the story has fundamentally changed, and that this is a beast, not a human, but Weerasethakul still gives us Tong. It's not exactly subtle, is it?
  
  Not that it matters. The plot in a Weerasthakul film is always a secondary consideration; remember that he started out as a documentary, or at least a pseudo-documentary, filmmaker. He's more interested in the subjects he's exploring, be they people or folktales (and, like Errol Morris, he is also interested, maybe even more, in how the audience will react to them). He presents them beautifully, as is his wont, and through the wordlessness of the second half, which is presented with title cards, he draws our attention to the sounds of the forest, which are just slightly off, in keeping with the theme of the film's second half. That's the kind of attention to detail one should expect from a Weerasethakul film, and he delivers in spades.
  
  On the other side of the coin, the film does have its weaknesses. Most notably is the transition between the first and second halves of the film, which is jarring in the extreme, and is the number one complaint about it both in the reviews I've read and on discussion boards. I do understand why Weerasethakul chose such a jarring segue, and it does make sense, but I wonder how much of the feeling of transition would have been lost had the two halves of the story been joined more smoothly. I've already mentioned the film's only other major flaw, which is its odd heavy-handedness, but that's minor in the bigger scheme of things.
  
  If you're just discovering Weerasthakul, you have a wonderful journey in store. Start with The Mysterious Object at Noon and come to this one a little afterwards. ****

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  January 2, 2010

  benjaminguilbert2

  In a word (read out loud with Cartman's voice): gay.
  
  Why oh why any one ever thought the viewers may be interested by his erotic adventures in caves covered in bat shit?

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  September 16, 2008

  mrhaljam

  Never seen anything quite like this. a slow, lyrical exploration of the love that blossoms between an errant soldier and a village boy - until the script is flipped, and the same story is replayed in a myth-heavy metaphorical mode. the realism of the literal love story gives way ... read moreto a stunning primal jungle encounter between man and (possibly supernatural) beast. there are images in this film that i'm sure i will never forget.

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• Banlop Lomnoi as Keng
• Sakda Kaewbuadee as Tong
• Sirivech Jareonchon
• Udom Promma
• Huai Deesom
• Huai Dessom

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  Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (100%)
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  Mysterious Object at Noon (100%)

• Which one of these is from Thailand?  Answer »

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