Review of Tropical Malady (2004) by Jeff B — 01 Jan 2011

Well, this was certainly a different film. It's basically two different films, the first half dealing with a soldier and a farmer boy who have a romantic relationship together, and the second half deals with a hunter searching for a tiger (who shapefits into a human) that is killing the livestock. The first half is pretty straightforward (and, unfortunatley, a bit tedious I felt) while the second half is much more poetic and mysterious.

I can see how the two stories are related, but I much preferred the second half of the film. There were parts from the first half I enjoyed though, the cave sequence was nice and I enjoyed the tale of the monk. But I wish the film stayed like the second half where it went into a fable. I also couldn't help but notice that there was a mention of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (and certainly helped pave the way for the second half of the film).

Anyway, there were some very nice visual. particularly in the second half (the tree at night and the ghostly cattle) and the sound was excellent. But the first half went too slow for me and didn't flow like the second half.