- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives reminded me just how beautiful Thailand must be. I recall seeing a nature program some years ago now about endangered tigers in Thailand and thinking to myself that it looked like one of the most astonishingly diverse and gorgeous places in the world. This film captures some of that beauty, accompanied by what I assume is a very realistic cacophony of insect sounds. There are lingering shots of a really terrific waterfall, a surprisingly stellar cave, and several lovely sections of the rainforest as seen in both darkness and light. It also shows what (again I assume) must be a typical Thai country home, which was interesting to see. And a traditional Thai funeral, which was something I had never even considered.
- Did I mention that this film is absolutely excruciating to watch? Honestly, I almost didn't make it through. The worst part is, I love slow foreign films! I absolutely adored Tokyo Story, and it didn't even have any ghosts or talking monkeys in it. But this? Basically the story is that a man named Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) is slowly (and I do mean slowly) dying of kidney failure. Both the imdb and wikipedia claim that he remembers his past lives, which the title certainly also suggests, but I'm not convinced that actually ever happens. In fact, I'm deeply skeptical that anyone besides me has ever stayed awake through the entire film. I think it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes because everybody woke up during the end credits and didn't want to embarrass themselves by admitting that they had dozed off.
- Anyway, this would have been a much better film if it had just consisted of shots of the Thai landscape with maybe the occasional comment thrown in by a David Attenborough type. Instead, it rudely interrupts the scenery with weird ape men, out-of-body experiences, ghosts, and...I never thought I'd be writing this...catfish sex. I'm just guessing that Boonmee was the catfish in a past life, but again the movie seems to be going to great pains to make that point unclear. I'll admit that I chuckled when I realized that the ape man's wife was a bigfoot, but that's only because it reminded me of a funny Eddie Murphy routine. By the end, I was jealous of Uncle Boonmee because he got to die twenty minutes before the film was through.
