Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" is a unique fusion of the bizarre and the mundane. The film, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, is a visual experience that creates its own world, whose composition and meaning are usually just beyond the viewer's grasp.
Though the film has very little in the way of plot — this is no comfortable Hollywood film — all the fantastical images keep the audience's attention piqued. Although most viewers will find themselves at a loss to explain what is going on or what it means, it is not a waste of time. "Uncle Boonmee" is a philosophical, introspective piece of film, and the plot matters less than the feelings the images impart.
Weerasethakul has an uncanny skill for depicting the supernatural and finding the magic hiding in ordinary, day−to−day life. His film hints at a link, and even some interplay, between the real world and the world of ghosts. In the film, at an ordinary family dinner, the ghost of a long−lost wife docilely shows up to proclaim, "Heaven is overrated. There is nothing there." In another movie, this line might serve to critique religion in society; here, it is simply a haunting facet of Weerasethakul's world — a world that may look like our own, but is somehow something more.
Early in the film, Uncle Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) is shown living a simple life. Boonmee works on a small farm in the northern part of Thailand and has recently learned he is dying of a kidney disease. He seems at peace with his own death. Boonmee's sister−in−law, Jen (Jenjira Pongpas), and his friend, Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee), stay with him to look after him in his final days.
The ghost that interrupts their dinner is the ghost of Boonmee's wife, Huay (Natthakarn Aphaiwonk), who has been dead for 20 years. Her apparition is calm and unquestioning; she acts as though there is nothing strange about her presence.
But just as the characters and viewers alike adjust to one dead spirit, another one comes along. Boonmee's long−lost son, Boonsong (Geerasak Kulhong), enters the house, emulating his mother's composure. Unlike her, however, he is unrecognizable: His spirit has taken the form of a very hairy and very large monkey with burning red eyes. He explains that he looks like this because as a ghost he fell in love with a mythical, Bigfoot−like being, known as a Monkey Ghost, and the two spirits fused (this comes across less ridiculous than it sounds).
The importance of this dinner lies not in the oddity of these guests, but in Boonmee and his family's rapid acceptance of and adjustment to their presence. The spirits and humans do ordinary things together, leafing through photo albums and talking about old times — it's as though no one ever died.
"Uncle Boonmee" also discards chronology in order to tell Boonmee's tale in even more peculiar ways. Interjected into Boonmee's story is a fable−like anecdote about a young queen who meets a talking fish at a waterfall. The two make a connection and eventually engage in cunnilingus. The film takes this otherwise absurd account and makes it a natural and resonating part of the story.
The world "Uncle Boonmee" creates isn't strictly one of fantasy, though this remains one of its most powerful aspects. Real−world concerns poke through the absurdity in unexpected ways. For example, the ideas of communism, karma and immigration are discussed honestly. These concepts come into play when Boonmee wonders if killing socialists while in the army when he was younger has caused everything that is happening to him now. The director balances these supernatural and physical worlds with remarkable concentration and dexterity.
Even if the plot is strange and slow for a general audience, the powerful, poignant imagery glues eyes to the screen. The images in the opening sequence are particularly riveting. The camera lingers on a lone buffalo in a forest just as the sun is setting. Smoke and mist rise around the buffalo until it starts to look unnatural, which epitomizes the film's melding two distinct worlds. When the buffalo starts to run, it is quickly captured and confined by a man who springs out of nowhere.
What does this have to do with the rest of the movie? The film never explains it, but that's not really its focus: It would rather make the viewer feel than understand.
If I said I understood everything in "Uncle Boonmee," I would be lying. There is too much mysticism and symbolism for a viewer to grasp it all completely. But much like a dream, even when logic is absent, the emotions and feelings are still as vivid as reality.
