There is no other filmmaker like Apichatpong Weerasethakul, period. A pioneer of 21st-century slow cinema, his films conjure a twilight zone in which small-scale living coexists comfortably with the inexplicably mystical. If his name rings a bell, then maybe you were one of the people who saw his last film, Memoria, starring Tilda Swinton, a film most notorious for only being in arthouse theaters. Before that film, it could be argued that his most accessible film was Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, as it explores death and how the strength of familial bonds reaches beyond different realms of existence.
What Is 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives' About?
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Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) is slowly dying of kidney failure and getting dialysis treatments while living with his sister-in-law Jen (Jenjira Pongpas) and nephew Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee). They spend their days together alone on his farm, doing the daily chores and content with their quiet corner of the world. That changes when they're visited by two surprising beings: the ghost of Boonmee's wife, Huay (Natthakarn Aphaiwong), and Boonsong (Jeerasak Kulhong), his son who has been transformed into a red-eyed, black-furred monkey man. The awkward meeting sees the family quickly fall back into its old routines, rebuilding their connections and finding new ways to explore their perspectives on living. There's barely much of a plot, and you could say that there's a sense of character arcs, but the film is more ideally experienced as a series of dreamlike episodes that immerse you in moments that inspire introspection.
'Uncle Boonmee' Blends the Mundane and the Mystical
The real magic trick of the film is how it uses extended moments of surreal imagery and standalone set pieces to spellbind you into scenes that are largely mundane interactions. A scene of Boonmee cuddling with Huay and sharing his fatal diagnosis will feel far more impactful knowing that she's a ghost who professes to be attached to people more than places, indicating the love she feels for him. You get over Boonsong's glowing red eyes and coarse fur when you listen to his story of falling in love with a monkey ghost woman and giving himself fully to their lifestyle. There's an entire one-scene subplot devoted to a princess (Wallapa Mongkolprasert) who rejects a servant's love in favor of the warm embrace of... a talking catfish. At this point, viewers just go along with it because it's honestly not stranger than anything else that has happened so far in the movie. In this film's vision, all things make sense as long as there's love and connection between all involved. Even death itself cannot stop these people from appreciating what they shared in the human phase of their lives.
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'Uncle Boonmee's Themes and Fixation on Death Led It to the Palme D'Or
It's folly to claim that a film like Uncle Boonmee means any one thing, as Weerasethakul's films trust you to give yourself over to an entrancing experience. That said, its recurring fixation on death and the consequences of death is one that permeates throughout each strand. Boonmee wonders if he's accrued bad karma because of the Communists he killed in his past as a member of the military. He details a dream of living in another world where authority figures use lights to make people vanish from existence, perhaps a way of coping with his own upcoming demise.
Tong undergoes a major change in his life by becoming a monk, which is more of a spiritual death and rebirth, but the end of a part of his life, nevertheless. Much like contemplating death, there are no clear answers to any of what happens in the film, but there is a sense of comfort and acceptance just under the surface, one that feels like a phantasmal hug. It proved to be a potent mixture of senses that led to this film being, by far, one of the strangest films to ever win the Palme d'Or, but for good reason.
Image by Zanda Rice
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