Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Member's Rating
  • Currently 3.5/5} Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Rate this movie

0 1 2 3 4 5

Rent this DVD
Synopsis Cast & Crew Technical

Synopsis

"Hmm, the poster looks cool, but I don't know about that title?" Listen, no one does. But Uncle Boonmee won the Golden Palm at Cannes 2010, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Blissfully Yours) has never let you down. The plot is thin and it's not exactly the point: In the forests of northeast Thailand, an old farmer named Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) is dying. His sister and nephew come to visit, as do the ghosts of his deceased wife and his long-lost son...in the form of a red-eyed, man-sized monkey...and this is cool with everyone. It's hard to package this uncategorizable film, but J. Hoberman had a go at it: "The acme of no-budget, Buddhist-animist, faux-naive, avant-pop magic neorealism." This Western viewer found similarities to Terrence Malick's and--brace yourself--M. Night Shyamalan's knack for making the natural world unnatural, surreal, and still sweet. But Joe Weerasethakul accomplishes this with a shoestring budget, and the result is completely off the map. Recommended! In Thai with English subtitles.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul---Thailand---2010---114 mins.

See More Like This  |  Review This Disc  |  Recommend to a Friend  |  Rent Me

Reviews of 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives'

Write Your Own Online Review
1 Customer Review  |  See All Customer Reviews

Most Recent Reviews
Here is a list of the most recently submitted reviews for this movie.

  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
   | Salt#1

Uncle Boonmee won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s a slow-moving, enigmatic and surreal film. The filmmaker mixes styles, going from single-shot tableaus to open-air documentary styles, long tracking through dark jungles to bright, mundane interiors. Embedded within a simple story of a man preparing to die from kidney disease are conversations with ghosts, legends, 1950’s style movie monsters, memories and a midnight excursion into a jungle cave. Everything moves at a leisurely pace from one elliptical scene to another. The camera even goes underwater in a scene strongly reminiscent of Jean Vigo’s “L’Atalante”. I can’t say that I sat spellbound through the whole thing, but there were many scenes that continue to echo in my mind and I can’t say I’m sorry I watched it. It’s one of those movies I’ll be mulling over for a while and I may even watch it again.

I found this review: