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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
TROPICAL MALADY
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cannes Jury Prize-winning Tropical
Malady is proudly conscious of both its mesmerizing and aggravating
effects. The tolerance limit for experimental films may be different
for each viewer, but most will be shaken, whether it be with anger or astonishment, by what is
not merely a film but a visceral experience.
Structurally similar to his previous film Blissfully Yours,
Weerasethakul's sophomore feature film links two separate stories with a
short in the middle, beginning with the awkward gay
romance between a handsome soldier, Keng (Banlop Lomnoi), and a young
country boy, Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee). The couple's rendezvous are a
disjointed patchwork of their experiences in the city and countryside
of Thailand. Keng’s sexual desire is again and again quietly
suppressed by Tong, until it culminates in a scene in which they lick
each other's fingertips. But soon after, Tong walks off, leaving Keng
in complete darkness.
What follows abruptly is a short crash course in
Thai folklore. But after this transition, the director ceases to give
any helping hands to the viewer. Keng reappears as a
soldier hunting down a mythical shaman that has
transformed into a ravenous tiger, preying on the village livestock. The shaman is revealed
in human
form to be Tong, his naked body covered in mystical scriptures. The
cinematographers capture the Northeastern Thailand jungle in its
suffocating majesty. And interspersed with charming details, such as a talking baboon or the
animated ghost of a cow, the chase among the two men spirals deeper
into the surreal.
Whether the two stories are linked to one another or whether
Weerasethakul is retelling the same story in two different ways is
open to interpretation. Because the memory of the first story
will inevitably haunt and confuse viewers as they see the second,
Weerasethakul is adept in creating what quite literally feels like a
malady - a malady of love at its most insufferably obsessive.
Though Tropical Malady qualifies as an intelligently wrought art film,
Weerasethakul could have compromised some of the film's
inaccessibility. Without a thorough knowledge and appreciation of Thai
folklore, the metaphorical depth of the film is lost, and the viewer is left to grapple for light in
the darkness just as Keng grapples in the leech-infest, humid jungle. At the film's end,
its protagonist is brought down to his knees in desperation,
as will most of the viewers. Marie Iida
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