Tropical Malady

“World cinema’s premier maker of mysterious objects, Apichatpong Weerasethakul is on a one-man mission to change the way we watch movies. Rich and strange, postmodern and prehistoric, his films foster an experience of serene bewilderment and — for the willing viewer — euphoric surrender. They are suffused with a sense of wide-open possibility that sometimes explodes into epiphany . . . Tropical Malady, the Thai director's fourth feature, was winner of a Jury Prize at Cannes [in 2004] . . . Instructively titled, Malady is split down the middle between lovesick daydream and malarial delirium. An idyllic first half, which recounts in fleeting fragments the intensifying attraction between handsome soldier Keng and bashful farm boy Tong, gives way to a nocturnal folk tale that likewise traces an anatomy of desire, but this time with the soldier amid an unearthly menagerie of tiger spirits, phantom cattle, and an aphorism-dispensing baboon. How do the two halves connect? Which one is real—or realer? Are these pertinent questions? . . . Tropical Malady promotes new ways of seeing” (Dennis Lim, Village Voice). “Otherworldly . . . This new feature shows a young filmmaker pushing at the limits of cinematic narrative with grace and a certain amount of puckish wilfulness” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times).