Review of Tropical Malady (2004) by André G — 06 Feb 2010

A disappointing first experience with acclaimed director Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Tropical Malady (2005) - 4.1/10.

Director - Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Cast - Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Sirivech Jareonchon, Udom Promma.

Over the past several weeks I've been watching many of the acclaimed foreign films of the previous decade. I've scoured numerous "Best of the Decade" lists trying to find interesting films I may have missed the first go around, and one director whose name kept coming up on these lists was Apichatpong Weerasethakul. I picked "Tropical Malady" because it was one of several mentioned and the only one available.

"Tropical Malady" starts with a group of soldiers who discover a corpse in a forest clearing. Soon we move to the burgeoning relationship between a soldier Keng (Banlop Lomnoi) and a shy country boy Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee). Midway through the film takes an abrupt mythical turn where Keng tracks a tiger in the jungle.

This film was disappointing on many levels. The first half of the story wasn't particularly original or even engaging. It had a few nice moments but overall I felt detached from Keng and Tong. Then Weerasethakul makes an abrupt turn midway through. In fact it could very well be two short films merged together with only a thin symbolic link. The second half is actually more interesting and ambitious but unfortunately Weerasethakul had pretty much lost me at that point. I will probably lower my expectations for the next Apichatpong Weerasethakul film I see.