Film Review: Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Mekong Hotel

Mekong Hotel, the latest ditty from Thai auteur Weerasethakul Apichatpong, would be looked upon as the strangest of creatures if it were by almost any other filmmaker in the world, but since it is from who it is from - and his friends just call him Joe, by the way - this hybrid of fact and fiction, this melange of documentary and ghost-cum-vampire fable, this amalgamation of truth and legend, seems like just another day in the life of Apichatpong "Just call me Joe" Weerasethakul - and by just another day, I mean a hauntingly melodic work of cinema, that is equal parts beautiful and terrifying, luscious and vicious, mesmerizing and harrowing.  In other words, it is a film from just another film from Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Clocking in at a slim 61 minutes, this experimental film, ostensibly blending together rehearsals for a never-made film with documentary footage of a hotel along the perennially rising waters of the Mekong River, which separates Thailand from Laos, is full of the typical beauty that is so often associated with the arthouse cinema of Mr. Weerasethakul - a beauty that never invades its subject, never engulfs it so no one can see the underlying torment of his characters, but rather acts as an artistically-minded frame for the story inside.  No less than two of Apichatpong's films have talking animals in them, inside stories that have no real reason for having talking animals, but when those animals talk, you don't even blink.  Nothing inside you says, "Oh, this is weird.  Why is this happening."  Instead, you think, "Well, yeah, of course those animals are talking, why the hell not."  This is the strange creature that is the cinema of good ole Joe.  Nothing is odd.  Nothing is out of the ordinary.  Everything here is just the way it should be, even if a catfish starts talking to a lost princess, even if a tiger taunts its prey, even, as happens in Mekong Hotel, a woman is feasting on the entrails of her seemingly oblivious daughter.  You just think, "Why the hell not."

Granted, the short run time of this latest film, makes for a slimmer content than most of his films - as well as a more difficult time trying to release the film theatrically (my best guess would be, other than on the festival circuit, of which it has already pretty much made its rounds, an online release as opposed to a theatrical one here in the states, is more likely), but even so, the queer melancholy one gets from the director's two best works, Tropical Malady and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, the disarming quietness, the bucolic beauty, is in full force here, as we watch put-on rehearsals for an unrealized film about ancient vampiric ghosts, called Ecstasy Garden (though much smaller in scope, one is reminded of Terry Gilliam's unrealized film doc, Lost in La Mancha here), blended with talk of flooding and evacuation and immigration problems, and all encased with the melodic strings of an acoustic guitar that plays over nearly every minute of the film.  Mekong Hotel really is a quite fascinating work of fact and fiction - something one would be hard-pressed to take one's eyes off of - and hopefully it can find the light of day here in the states, so anyone who is interested - and yes, Weerasethakul is definitely a unique taste in cinephilia - can watch and be as mesmerized as this critic was.

 

The Cinematheque Reviews: Uncle Boonmee, Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Once upon a time there was a filmmaker from Thailand named Apichatpong Weerasethakul, but this was a very difficult name for many to grasp and speak out loud (though it is very easy if you just read it and pronounce it the way it is spelled) so everyone knew him as Nancy...er I mean, Joe (the Beatles fan in me snuck out).  Joe was educated in Chicago (Hog Butcher to the World!  The City of Big Shoulders!) bjt went back home to make his movies.  His movies started out as experimental creatures, but he would eventually go more toward the narrative - though still quite avant-garde to say the least.  Many of Joe's films were praised by critics (this one included) but not many got past the festival circuit to play in the states - other than a few brief stints in the city of the Big Apples.  Okay, so Joe isn't exactly the multiplex kinda filmmaker, but even by arthouse standards, not many people have seen his movies - and that, coming here as the moral to our little story, is a downright Goddamned shame.  

The reason I am even telling this little tale is because Joe - let us say his name in full, Apichatpong Weerasethakul - has been given one of those brief stints in New York City with his latest film (get ready for a mouthful) Uncle Boonmee, Who Can Recall His Past Lives.  I was lucky enough to see it as part of the press corps at last year's New York Film Festival (and I wrote a bit on it HERE) but had to wait five months for a proper US release, and a proper US film review.  Incidentally, a somewhat shortened review of the one linked below was published as part of my Guest Review stint over at 366 Weird Movies (which can be viewed HERE).  After these two precursors, as it were (sneak peeks if you will), I am finally able to publish my full-length review at The Cinematheque.  Now your job is to go see this movie while you can (it will also be on demand for those unable to make the trek to NYC) because once the year is over and you see this film on my Best of 2011 List, you will want to go back and see it anyway (because my opinion matters, right!?).

Read my review of Uncle Boonmee at The Cinematheque.

366 Weird Movies Guest Review: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Here is my latest guest review for the fine folks over at 366 Weird Movies.  It is for Apichatpong Weerasethakul's sublime Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.  I saw the film at last year's New York Festival and, at the time, heralded it as at least equal to my favourite Weerasethakul film, Tropical Malady.  Today, I step that up some, by heralding it as the Thai auteur's best work yet.  I will be posting a review of the film over at The Cinematheque a bit closer to its release date, which is March 2nd at Film Forum btw.  That review will more along the extended remix route, but the one over at 366 Weird Movies is nice too.  Anyway, enjoy it now and come back for the director's cut on or around March 1st. 

Read my review of Uncle Boonmee at 366 Weird Movies.

Next up on my 366 Movies guest reviewing gig will be a review on Zhang Yimou's Coen Brothers remix, A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop, a new look at Sam Fuller's Naked Kiss (just out in a great new Criterion edition) and a "re-release" of my already published Amer review from a few weeks back.

NYFF 2010: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

The proof in the pudding, so to speak, of the mystical quality of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's cinema, is when you can introduce a talking catfish into the middle of your story (in a seemingly unrelated episode to the rest of the film) and have him "pleasure" a young melancholy princess beneath a beautiful waterfall, and never once does it seem out of place or extraordinary.  Merely a natural extension of the director's already mythmaking style of filmmaking.  When Von Trier had his ravenous fox growl out "chaos reigns" in Antichrist, it was meant to be as antagonistic as the filmmaker himself.  In Uncle Boonmee, Apichatpong...er, I mean Joe (as he likes to be called) it seems like just a natural thing that happens all the time.  A talking catfish who goes down on a princess?  Sure, why the Hell not.
 

Seriously though, Uncle Boonmee is a revelatory piece of cinema - especially considering my sordid past with the films of Joe's strange little oeuvre (and I don't mean that as condescendingly as it may sound).  More oft than not I have had rather tepid reactions to the works of Weerasethakul.  Blissfully Yours and Mysterious Object at Noon were interesting experimentations but held no real lasting flavour.  Meanwhile Syndromes and a Century (first seen at this very festival four years back), though praised to the high heavens by just about every self-respecting critic out there, and though quite charming throughout, fell rather flat in this particular critic's esteem.  Only Tropical Malady (first seen at this very festival six years back) made a lasting impression on me (enough of one to make my top 10 that year).  That is, until now, and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

Fascinating from absolute beginning to absolute end, Uncle Boonmee is the Thai auteur's best film yet (as well as winner of this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes!), with its weaving intricate tales of the strange and unusual within the mundane and ordinary (read: Apichatpong's unnatural natural filmmaking signature) and his ideas of duality and alternate existences.  Basically the story of the titular uncle who finds himself dying and invites his sister-in-law and nephew to spend his final days together on his jungle farm.  Shortly thereafter, the ghost of Boonmee's dead wife shows up to help him get through his illness.  Shortly after that Boonmee's long lost son returns, but in some sort of bigfootian non-human form.  In fact the first appearance of the ominous-seeming monkey ghosts (see picture below) was what sealed the proverbial deal for this critic.  
 

Meanwhile, after the aforementioned randy catfish, we join Boonmee in what may be his final moments (or may not) deep inside a cave that seems to be the darkened womb of Weerasethakul's storytelling.  A definite mythmaker, Apichatpong has managed to deepen my love for his work - something that probably should have been done a while ago (perhaps Syndromes and a Century deserves a much needed second look).  Stunningly photographed in such a way as to make the already unnatural naturalness of the film seem even more mystical (Joe, in the after film Q&A, spoke of his intent on an artificiality of scenery) Uncle Boonmee is what one would call haunting - if one wished to use such a cliche'd term as haunting.  But really, it is quite haunting.  Quite haunting indeed.  All that and a talking, seductive catfish.  Why the Hell not.

note: Strand Releasing has purchased US rights to the film and will eventually release it theatrically here in the states.  When that eventuality is, I cannot yet say, but I would guess at an early 2011 time table.  At such time I will post a full review of the film.