Skip to main content

Tropical Malady - A Review

I went to see Tropical Malady (Sud Pralad) at the ICA last night and I still don't really know what to think of this film to be honest. I seem to undestand that it tells the story of two young men, one of them, a soldier, falling in love with the other (a villager) who, while he enjoys the attention, does not seem that interested. Suddenly, halfway through the film, we find ourselves in a second film (new credits are shown after the screen goes blank for a while, making you wonder it the reel broke or something) retelling of the legend of a Shaman (the villager) who can turn himself into animals and the hunter (our soldier) who is after him. While it was indeed possible to follow the narrative (or what there is of it), it felt like we were watching the rushes of another story; the bits that are left out in a normal narrative. Little moments that don't really make sense out of context.

The "love" story is very strangely told too. As far as I know Thailand is not particularly tolerant of homosexuality, yet in the film the fact that these two guys are obviously very close and touching and all doesn't seem to worry anybody witnessing this. At the same time, the "relationship" doesn't seem to go much further than very light petting (we don't even see them kiss).

The whole thing was very slow and the production values not very high. I felt like I was watching an early silent movie at times, not only because of the very scarce amount of dialogue and the fact that the second part of the film (the most striking part with the ever-present, obsessive sound of the forest as a soundtrack) tells you the story with inlaid text, but because of the way it was filmed, with certain static shots lasting that tiny bit too long and the actors becoming a bit wooden as a result.

I am still not sure what the message of the film is. It opens with a quote to the effect that we all should learn to tame the animal in us, which is I suppose, taken up in the second part. The original Thai title means "Beast" or "Monster" in English. I did get a vague sense that the second part might be some sort of metaphor for the first but the clues are far too elusive to be able to tell for sure.
All in all it is very disconcerting and while I can't say I did not like it, I can not really see what is its point. But perhaps that is its point.


Sud pralad (2004)
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Jury Prize of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Short History of the Elephant and Castle and Its Name

Last night I attended a lecture by local historian Stephen Humphrey who discussed the general history of the Elephant & Castle, focussing more particularly on what he called its heyday (between 1850 and 1940). This is part of a week-long art project ( The Elephant Project ) hosted in an empty unit on the first floor of the infamous shopping centre, aiming to chart some of the changes currently happening to the area. When an historian starts talking about the Elephant and Castle, there is one subject he can not possibly avoid, even if he wanted to. Indeed my unsuspecting announcement on Facebook that I was attending such talk prompted a few people to ask the dreaded question: Where does the name of the area come from, for realz? Panoramic view of the Elephant and Castle around 1960/61. Those of us less badly informed than the rest have long discarded the theory that the name comes from the linguistic deformation of "Infanta de Castille", a name which would have become at

Review: Park Avenue Cat @ Arts Theatre

As we are steadily reminded throughout the hour and half hour of Park Avenue Cat , the new play by Frank Strausser, which had its "world premiere" this week-end at the Arts Theatre, time is money. Most of the play takes place in the office of a posh LA therapist who charges $200 per hour. So, having sat through the play, I am wondering why the author spent time writing it, why a production team spent time putting it up and why I and any audience member are asked to spent time (and money) watching it. The play, said to be "a triangle with four corners" (!), brings together a therapist (Tessa Peake-Jones), who is probably not enjoying her job all that much), Lily (Josefina Gabrielle - the eponymous Parc Avenue cat) as well as Philip (Gray O'Brien - aka Tony Gordon in Coronation Street) and Dorian (Daniel Weyman), Lily's lovers. In an interview on the play's dedicated website, Strausser (who was in the audience) explains that he thinks comedy comes out of a

pink sauce | life, with a pink seasoning

As of tonight, my blog Aimless Ramblings of Zefrog , that "place where I can vent my frustration, express ideas and generally open my big gob without bothering too many people" which will be 6 in a couple of months, becomes Pink Sauce . While the URLs zefrog.blogspot.com and www.zefrog.eu are still valid to access this page, the main URL now becomes www.pinksauce.co.uk. There is a vague plan to create a proper website for www.zefrog.eu to which the blog would be linked. Why Pink Sauce , you may ask. It is both simple and complicated. For several years, I have grown out of love for the name of the blog. It felt a bit cumbersome and clumsy. That said, I never really looked into changing it, seriously. Tonight, for dinner, I had pasta with a special pink sauce of my concoction ; single cream and ketchup. I know most people while feel nauseous at the very though of the mixture but trust me, it's gorgeous. Don't knock it till you've tried it. After having had my platte