Left Field Cinema

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is arguably Thailand’s greatest living film maker, certainly that’s the view I take on the matter, although he is by no means regarded as such by the majority in his homeland. But then Weerasethakul’s films are probably just as challenging to his countrymen as they are to the rest of the world. ‘Challenging’ is the perfect adjective for his particular brand of abstract, contemplative, transcendental cinema. In a short feature film career which first began ten years ago he’s only has four credits as director and one as co-director. Starting with his semi-documentary Mysterious Object at Noon (2000) which took the surrealist game of ‘the exquisite corpse’ and applied it to film. Shooting on 16mm, the film travels around Thailand asking each new interviewee to add words to a story; as a result of the films improvised nature and its lack of a central character or even a clear subject matter (the sort that documentaries usually draw on for sense of cohesiveness) the viewer is often perplexed by the result – this is truly experimental film making, forgoing conventional wisdom and boldly attempting something completely original. Next came Blissfully Yours (2002) which would in many respects set the tone and style for his subsequent films. Its a pared down narrative focuses on two pairs of lovers, a younger and an older couple who travel into the jungle to make love, split into to two halves it begins with a long sequence in the local town where one of the central couples are trying to find a cream for a rash on the males leg. At approximately half way into the film they set out into the jungle and the distinctive change in geography signals a change in tone and pace making Blissfully Yours a great example of slow minimalist cinema. Although Weersasethakul’s photography and direction is not what would be counted as traditionally beautiful film making, at this stage in his career he didn’t orchestrate the sort balletic imagery we’ve come to expect from the likes of Andrei Tarkovsky or Bela Tarr, but there is something undeniably mesmerising and hypnotic about the film which is in part due to where the director places his camera and how he holds on moments of quiet contemplation. Featuring a number of explicit sex scenes this sophomore effort from Weerasethakul was censored in Thailand and once again did not find a large domestic or international audience, but was later more widely released on DVD. The subject of this article Tropical Malady (2004) came next and audiences can certainly track his development from Blissfully Yours to this film and on to his latest work Syndromes and a Century (2006). Each arguably more elliptical than the one before, each pushing duality further and further. The geography of his films move slowly from the jungle into the cities, with a greater portion of Blissfully Yours taking place in the wilderness and the greatest portion of Syndromes and a Century taking place in the city. Outside of this trilogy of two-act films split down the centre comes a low budget digital film he co-directed with Michael Shaowanasai the bizarrely titled The Adventures of Iron Pussy (2003) a musical comedy spoof about a transvestite secret agent (I’ve yet to see this particular film as it’s unavailable in on Region 2 DVD, but it stands out as a departure from his other films and proof, if proof were needed that Weerasethakul is a director with a sense of humour).

Like Blissfully Yours and Syndromes and a Century, Tropical Malady is a film divided into two halves, however here this division is at its most blatant. Blissfully Yours maintained the same characters but simply changed their goals and geography at its mid point. Syndromes and a Century maintained the same characters (and much of the dialogue) from one half to the next and simply moved individuals from the country-side to the city and then replayed events within the urban context. Tropical Malady’s split seems to completely end one narrative strand (a soldier and a local mans blossoming romance) and then begins an entirely different story (a soldier in a battle of wits with the spirit of tiger shaman). The second half of the narrative even has a different title sequence to mark the switch. On the surface the only connection the two halves of Tropical Malady have is that they both feature a soldier character and that the two men in the first half and the two men in the second half are both played by the same actors (Banlop Lomnoi and Sakda Kaewbuadee), on a surface appraisal of the film, one could easily consider it just two medium length films tacked together for their release, however on closer inspection we can see deeper thematic connections between the two stories. An early seemingly unrelated shot of a man walking through the jungle naked hints at what is to come in the second half of the film, the first half of the film has a disconnected quality from scene to scene which means this image of the naked man is soon disregarded as just another piece in the puzzle for which we can not see a clear whole. The shots apparent glibness is forgotten about as the second half of the film takes form and we realise its significance. As with Syndromes and a Century, this disconnectedness means that the thesis of the film remains opaque for much of its runtime. Random scenes in the first half of the film depict the lives of our two central characters, the film opens with a group of soldiers taking pictures of each other with a dead body they’ve found, this scene also serves as forewarning of the darkness that is to come as the narrative progresses. But first we are treated to a series of scenes connected by an undampened serenity, the two lovers enjoying holding hands or lying in each others laps and making declarations of love, even a sequence when Tong’s dog falls sick with cancer is underscored by optimism as the two men go to the vets together, Tong is supported by his lover in his time of need. (Incidentally this sequence features a scene where the head vet trains other vets and discusses the treatment options for this ailing canine, the men and women in white coats also provide a connection with Weerasethakul’s other films which all feature doctors of some sort. His parents were doctors and clearly have had a strong effect on him and his films.) Throughout the film music plays a crucial part, but particularly in the first half where Thai pop music and love ballads are used with a knowing sense of irony, usually restricted to the diegetic domain such ghastly music clearly has a place in the lives of the protagonists and often renders humourous results as Weerasethakul holds the music just longer than is necessary. But this light, loving, humourous and tender attitude is replaced with an uneasy strangeness as the second half begins, this section for the film is entitled ‘Spirits Path’ as darkness takes over and a soldier battles with a crazed shaman. Spirits Path is much quieter, slowly the talking dies away until there is barely any dialogue at all. Metaphysics take over in this section of the film, where animals play a vital part and the narrative departs from conventional logic, while the soldier hunts for the shaman he accidentally shoots a cow, we watch as the cow’s spirit literally stands up, hovers above its departed corpse and then walks away - this is clearly no longer the real world. The narration in Spirits Path gives the impression of a story being told, a fantasy rather than a reality, again there is cross over with the first half which featured a brief sequence where a local woman tells the story of men who found fish that turned into gold but became greedy and lost everything, this tale of the fantastic is almost a preamble for the way the Spirits Path is told. In the films best scene, the soldier sees a baboon climbing the trees above him, the baboon begins talking to him, he informs the soldier that his destiny is with this man beast. ‘I see you’re his prey and his companion’ he observes. The baboon is never seen again.

There are many ways we can read the content of Tropical Malady, one interpretation is that the film is about isolation, epitomised by a scene in the first half when the two men are talking to each other from separate vehicles as they travel down the road, one moves faster than the other so they can not speak for long, they are together but separated. They are then completely separated and alone in the second half as they struggle through the unforgiving and darkened jungle. Isolation is perhaps too simplistic a theme for a film this complex, my view is that Tropical Malady is actually about the contrasts and contradictions within love, when the soldier and the shaman see each other (and assuming that they represent the two lovers from the first half) there is danger and passion, they attack or hide from each other: as the baboon observes they are both ‘prey and companion’. The films final poetic caption reads: ‘monster, I give you my spirit, my flesh, and my memories’. The lover is the monster, all consuming, all knowing, the only thing that truly matters in this world, the passionate destroyer, when two people love each other there is the risk that you might get hurt or worse still, be consumed by that which you love. Sometimes love is sweet, hopeful, wondrous and romantic, other times it is dark, visceral, frightening and predatory. Weerasethakul has stated that the film is about him, his desires, his life, it is a ‘directly personal film’. As such we can read this as an examination of the director’s insecurities. It followed a full screenplay (unlike Syndromes and a Century which was built up more organically) and has deliberate meaning. But despite its autobiographical roots there is something universal about the film which can be applied to any kind of romantic love: Tropical Malady tells us that the risks are great but so to are the rewards – just not in that particular order.

M.Dawson