Tropical Malady (Sud Pralad) (2004) (Thailand)

Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Cast: Banlop Lomnoi, Tong

In Cannes Film Festival 2004, the movie garnered the Prix du Jury 
see
www.festival-cannes.fr/pa...ition=2004
see also
www.festival-cannes.fr/fi...lm=4201593

The official website is here 
www.kickthemachine.com/wo...alady.html

What I like 
-- Definitely the second half of the film. In my humble opinion, it saved the entire film! After watching the first half, I was like, okay it was different there were a lot of subtlety and contrasts, but frankly, not every audience would be able to pick up the details. However, after watching the second half, it became apparent what the director was trying to do 

I would call it ambitious 
To some people, the two stories might appear disjointed (i.e., they appeared like two shorts, a real story and a mythical story) 
To some others, the two stories might be tangentially continuous (i.e., the first half about the soldier and his relationship, the second half about the soldiers search for the tiger that killed the livestock) 
BUT it could also be the two portrayal of the same story (i.e., both stories are two sides of the same coin)! It succeeded in its metaphoric interpretation 

-- In terms of cinematography, two scenes were particularly nice 
e.g., the tiger
e.g. the tree with fireflies 
-- With regards to casting, I initially didnt think much of it. But in the second story, Banlop Lomnoi managed to carry the segment, it was nearly a one man show. In fact, the second story had no (or minimal) dialogues but it managed to keep the audience interested to know what was happening 
-- The message of the film:
What is love and desire?


What I thought could be better 
-- The transition between the first and second story was kind of abrupt (as though there was something wrong with the reel )
-- There were quite a number of songs in the film (which may be of relevance). Like many films, the songs were not subtitled ...
-- As I mentioned earlier, the film was ambitious. Not every audience would be able to recognize or appreciate ALL the details within the film (e.g., reality vs dream, life vs death, human vs spirits, east vs west, tradition vs modernization, etc). In fact, some might not even know what the director was driving at 

Conclusion:
-- I call it a deceptively simple film not a typical film so go watch! 
If you do not understand, discuss with someone