dinarayessimova
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) by Apichatpong Weerasethkul is an ambiguous movie that can be approximated by an act of meditation in Buddhist culture. It is important, however, to state that the Buddhist premises in the movie are secondary and should be interpreted only with the acknowledgment of its' binding with the primordial Thai culture. Boonmee gives a clear explanation that he can be considered an adherent of Buddhism, referring to such ideas as karma, but this is not the only aspects of Buddhist culture that Weerasethakul used in the story: temporality, time and realm of life are one of the main concepts that are traced in the movie, however, should not be taken as explicitly Buddhist.
Temporality and time are one of the key features of the movie itself, and also in the dharma, the Buddhist teachings. The story is set in Thailand, in the country-side, and illustrates the conventional daily life on Boonmee, who seems to be a rather good living man with own property, suffering the kidney disease. The storytelling divides into various storylines, showing the contemporary current state of Boonmee and also his possible past lives. However, having no distinguished focalizer, it was left for the viewer to decide what is present, past and future according to the culture shown in the background. Due to the low real-life-like pace of the narration, it is even harder for the viewer to logically categorize, like the photographs shown closer to the end of the film are difficult to classify clearly. This feeling of things, action and even life itself being temporal and having rather a cyclical framing than linear is described in the Buddhist teachings as well as commented by Huay, the ghost wife Boonmee: "I have no concept of time anymore". Even the end of Boonmee's life is cyclical as well, returning to the cave, where his first life was created, emphasizing the cyclicality, but also the impermanence and, almost, insignificance.
The characters themselves also represent several Buddhist teachings and concepts, like realms of life and rebirth, however, should be repeatedly put in the context of the cultural background of the story. Huay, according to bhavachakra, the wheel of life, represents the realm of ghosts, whose dominant emotion has always been considered greed. Even being a ghost she still feels attached (almost greedy) to Boonmee, commenting "Ghosts aren't attached to places but to people". Boonsong, the son of Huay and Boonmee, also does not ascribe himself to the human society. According to the wheel, transformed into the hairy big ape Boonsong would be a part of the animal realm, representing ignorance. Being ignorant, he wanted to get the knowledge about the mysterious creature on the photograph he showed during the dinner, became addicted to finding out what it was. This can be seen as an oblique reference to the different realm of life in Buddhism, showing that the suffering, samsara, in every domain is what rotates the wheel.
Weerasethakul is a master of the cinematography, being able to immerse the viewer into the Thai country-side to act as a visual anthropologist, leaving everything unsaid, ambiguous and oblique. He uses the fundamental concepts of the Buddhist teachings to show the pieces of life in a whole picture, to comment of the cyclicity not only of one insignificant life but also the cyclicity of time itself, of feeling, emotions and even national history in some sense. Though he never gives the answer, for example, the split of Tong and Jaai in two parts in the end of the film is left to the subjectivity of each viewer. The impermanence and cyclical nature of the life by the director in a way, so that the viewer can feel it and live through it with the characters, trying to find answers and dharma in a way.
sultanyergaziyev
Ten wins in overall twenty film awards nominations including the Golden Palm on 2010 Cannes Film Festival and the Best Film award on Asian Film Awards in 2011; the comprehensive collaboration in film-making of six countries and the World Cinema Fund have significantly heightened the expectations about this movie. However, the controversial feedback from the audience and the already existing reputation of a director Apichatpong Weerasethakul of as preferring unconventional narration style gives us a clue that the picture is still not for large masses. In fact, I have never seen such a pellicular expression of terms, full of art house devices in a genre of half-fantasy. The thoughts after watching this film are so ambiguous that you need to take some time to really make your mind about the picture. The storyline constructs around the last days of a Thai farmer Boonmee who is suffering from kidney failure. Realizing all the seriousness of a situation Boonmee in Thai traditions decides to spend some time with his family to get all the affairs in order. His passed wife's sister Jen and her son Tong comes from the city take care of him. One night while eating a dinner they are joined by the spirits of wife and the monkey-like creature in which his long-missing son had turned in. They had a warm conversation about the afterlife and about their past. Next day the narration continues without any changes except that the spirit of Boonmee wife is accompanying the husband in material form even helping him with a dialysis. The narration is abruptly interrupted by the scene of some unknown India princess seeking for a glimpse of her past beauty in a mysterious fountain. That story is in no way connected to main plot where the action passes the turning point of Boonmee with his family wandering into the cave at the hilltop where he realizes that it is the birthplace of is first life and passes away in peace.
Although at first sight the main plot might seem lacking any singularity and original idea, in my opinion, it should be considered broken down into the smaller episodes each of them having its own moral. First one is the parable about the futility of life and the purity of soul. Even when the spirit of his wife tells Boonmee about his soon death he accepts it without any unrest. Here we see an element of a Buddhist religion where death is not considered as the complete end but a transition to next stage of existence. Also, the fact that all the family members were not at all excited by the appearance of their dead relatives is a reference to a Thai belief that dead souls are among us and some of them may appear in form of ghosts and spirits. The next main thought is the all-embracing concept of karma passing throughout the entire plot and fully unfolding in the scene where Boonmee sitting under the awning with Jen tells her that his illness is a result of his bad karma because he killed too many people at war and even too many insects on his farm. Jen responds telling that the main thing about the karma is the intentions of a person and his conciseness again referring to Buddhist principles. The falling action where Boonmee went into the jungle saying that he does not know yet what is his destination is like an allegory on the human life wandering in search of his predestination. On the other hand, from the Buddhist perspective, it is the illustration of a turning point where you have to abandon all your possessions to find the real salvation in enlightenment. The hypocrisy in the epilogue where nephew who became a monk and does not follow the rules suggest that some personality in religion does not acknowledge the religion, while some ordinary people like Boonmee are much more enlightened.
Unfortunately, except the work of a director, the contribution of other participants is not likely to be such extraordinary. The filming and editing are fully made of long, one-shot scenes with big pauses between the replicas and actions. Although this is a part of an initial plan to make the movie slow-pacing and hasteless in Asian traditions, eventually, it acts against it on a broad range discouraging potential viewers. Scripts are also extremely ordinary - all the scenes are almost completely filled with everyday common conversations. In such case, non-professional actors not performing any outstanding acts and not showing any intricate emotions seem to perfectly suit into the cast. However, composition of long shots of scenes of nature and the permanent soundtrack of cricket and forest sounds add to the perception of rural areas and the local Thai population's life. The reason why the viewers and critics are so controversial about this movie is that it lacks a conventional plot and has a specific narration style. In order to understand the core ideas of a story person has to have at least a basic knowledge of the Buddhist religious principles and Thai traditions. Unprepared views would probably stop watching not reaching the middle because of ambiguousness and slow pace of the picture. But the real understanding ideas Weerasethakul was promoting as karma, the meaning of life and its severities comes only after deep rethinking. The film is an antithesis for the western understanding of an industry and is a claim for evolving global cultural multipolarity. I believe that it could not be shot in a different "more pleasant to ordinary viewer" manner as it would have lost its Eastern identity. I can say that I really enjoyed watching this movie as it is out a line of common products we are consuming nowadays. The whole "universe" of a movie makes you think both while and after the watching.
Tom Peeters
I read some bad reviews on that absolutely didn't hold any sense so I simply had to write one myself to clear up some things: THIS IS A METAFILM. Yes, it's a movie about movies. You can see it in the different style of cinema the scenes were shot, the multiple kinds of lighting, acting, etc. The dead son is an obvious reference to film which is losing its grounds to digital with the monkey suit as a symbol that refers to another movie, you probably know which one if you look closely to Boonmee's wife. They both stand for the change in technology used by film makers to render special effects, which is ALL compensated nowadays with CGI. The aunt is cripple, she comes from modern civilization which can be argued to cripple the human mind as well. Boonmee has a failing kidney and gets a stoma, even when the doctor said he'll be better he won't because technology simply cannot make man immortal. Man must learn to accept its fate but technology showers us with an illusion of immortality, as cleverly showed throughout the film. Nature will always remind us that we are animals and nothing more.The film hypnotizes you in its slow paced story, just like the cow it takes patience to tame the beast and bring it back home. If you're simply complaining about how slow a film goes, go to the bathroom and start checking your emails and phone calls I think you're not the right kind of person to watch these sorta films because you're obviously too busy with the material world and cannot comprehend the patience it takes to deepen your well of consciousness. Namaste and please enjoy this movie.
