Uncle Boonmee Who can Recall His Past Lives

Details: By Loron Hays; 09 August 2011

{2jtab: Movie Review}

Uncle Boonmee

{googleAds}

<div style="float:left">
<script type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script></div>{/googleAds}

Offering a new take on ghosts, mysticism and matters of life and death, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is also a bit tedious at times. The film is also a critical darling due to its Palme d'Or win at Cannes last year. It’s easy to see how and why. This film is haunting, disturbing, and just too freakin’ weird at times to ever find a mainstream audience. While it is hard to determine the meaning of the matter, after wading through some of Weerasethakul’s Buddhist musings about eternity and families, the grossly meandering film certainly has its fair share of captivating moments.

At its most basic of levels, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is about a man named Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) who is suffering from kidney failure and decides, in his final few months, to bring his surviving family - sister-in-law Jen (Jenjiro Pongpas) and nephew Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee) - together for dinner and fellowship while he receives treatment from Jaai, a Burmese worker. Unexpectedly, the entire family receives ghostly visits from Boonmee's dead wife Huay (Nattakarn Aphaiwonk) and his long-lost son Boonsong who disappeared into the forest after photographing ghost monkeys and, eventually, turned into one.

Weird, I know. It gets weirder. The narrative digresses into a legend about an ugly water princess who has sex with a catfish and back to Boonmee’s story and, finally, onto Tong’s. It’s without structure and, at times, eerie in where it goes with the idea of past lives. It also doesn’t get any stronger than it’s opening twenty minutes. Lingering shots are pregnant with meaning and stay on target about two minutes too long, yet there is an epic spirituality kicking about throughout the film’s lengthy running time.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives isn’t so much of an experimental film as it is an unstructured meditation on how the past is always with us either as ghosts or as ghost monkeys with red beady eyes. The past is always there; guiding us. Photography is the film’s strongest and strangest point and with its cinematography being credited to three people - Sayambhu Mukdeepram, Yukorntorn Mingmongkon, and Charin Pengpanich – it is little wonder why so many critics celebrated this film.

Unfortunately, its sleepy story isn’t nearly as pretty. In fact, the weirdness of nature replaying past lives in conjunction with the present condition of Boonmee is a bit of a distraction.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is certainly a pretty looking film, it just isn’t as powerful as some say it is.

{2jtab: Film Details}

MPAA Rating: This film has not been rated by the MPAA.
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Writer: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Cast: Thanapat Saisaymar; Jenjira Pongpas; Sakda Kaewbuadee; Natthakarn Aphaiwonk; Geerasak Kulhong
Genre: Comedy | Drama | Foreign
Tagline: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Memorable Movie Quote: "There are many beings outside right now."
Distributor: www.uncle-boonmee.com
Release Date: No U.S. theatrical release
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: August 2, 2011

Synopsis: Uncle Boonmee is suffering from kidney failure. As an avid practitioner of Yoga, he is well aware of his body. He knows that he will die in 48 hours. He feels his illness must be related with his bad karma. He has killed too many communists, he says. Boonmee calls his distant relatives to take him back from hospital to die at home, a longan farm. There, they are greeted by the ghost of his deceased wife who has re-appeared to take care of him.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

Uncle Boonmee

Component Grades
Movie		Blu-ray Disc


Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - August 2, 2011
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English (Imposed)
Audio: Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1; Thai: Dolby Digital 2.0
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)

Arriving on blu-ray courtesy of Strand Releasing, the 1080p transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Colors are strong and detail is vivid. The palette is full of urban blues, jungle greens, and earthy yellows. Black levels are consistent and grain layers are perfect. There is a slight softness to some scenes, but no visible crushing. The sound, offered in two separate tracks with subtitles, can either be Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 and Thai Dolby Digital 2.0.

Supplements:

Commentary:

None

Special Features:

There aren’t a lot of supplemental items here about the film. There is an interview with the film’s director (in English), a selection of important deleted scenes, and a short film about the message of the movie, but it seems Strand Releasing is more interested in selling other titles as the massive about of trailers for other films (Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century, Blissfully Yours, Headless Woman, To Die Like A Man, The Arbor, and Cameraman: The Life & Work of Jack Cardiff) sees this disc as a marketing platform.