Tropical Malady

It seems my timing for seeing Thai director Acpichatpong Weerasethakul’s film Tropical Malady is appropriate since he won the Palm d’Or at Cannes for his latest film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. I thought it was a visually stunning film, but also with a difficult story line that might be hard to follow for the lack of cultural awareness of Thai culture and the stylistic diversion that the director took through out the course of the 118 minute film. This is an art film-I would suspect that it has little commercial value and it is definitely not for everyone, but he has created something artistically inspired and beautiful to look at. I would have to say that I prefer the films of fellow countryman Pen-Ek Ratanarung-which are also considered art films, but have more conventional stories and narratives.