BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

dinarayessimova Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) by Apichatpong Weerasethkul is an ambiguous movie that can be approximated by an act of meditation in Buddhist culture. It is important, however, to state that the Buddhist premises in the movie are secondary and should be interpreted only with the acknowledgment of its' binding with the primordial Thai culture. Boonmee gives a clear explanation that he can be considered an adherent of Buddhism, referring to such ideas as karma, but this is not the only aspects of Buddhist culture that Weerasethakul used in the story: temporality, time and realm of life are one of the main concepts that are traced in the movie, however, should not be taken as explicitly Buddhist. Temporality and time are one of the key features of the movie itself, and also in the dharma, the Buddhist teachings. The story is set in Thailand, in the country-side, and illustrates the conventional daily life on Boonmee, who seems to be a rather good living man with own property, suffering the kidney disease. The storytelling divides into various storylines, showing the contemporary current state of Boonmee and also his possible past lives. However, having no distinguished focalizer, it was left for the viewer to decide what is present, past and future according to the culture shown in the background. Due to the low real-life-like pace of the narration, it is even harder for the viewer to logically categorize, like the photographs shown closer to the end of the film are difficult to classify clearly. This feeling of things, action and even life itself being temporal and having rather a cyclical framing than linear is described in the Buddhist teachings as well as commented by Huay, the ghost wife Boonmee: "I have no concept of time anymore". Even the end of Boonmee's life is cyclical as well, returning to the cave, where his first life was created, emphasizing the cyclicality, but also the impermanence and, almost, insignificance. The characters themselves also represent several Buddhist teachings and concepts, like realms of life and rebirth, however, should be repeatedly put in the context of the cultural background of the story. Huay, according to bhavachakra, the wheel of life, represents the realm of ghosts, whose dominant emotion has always been considered greed. Even being a ghost she still feels attached (almost greedy) to Boonmee, commenting "Ghosts aren't attached to places but to people". Boonsong, the son of Huay and Boonmee, also does not ascribe himself to the human society. According to the wheel, transformed into the hairy big ape Boonsong would be a part of the animal realm, representing ignorance. Being ignorant, he wanted to get the knowledge about the mysterious creature on the photograph he showed during the dinner, became addicted to finding out what it was. This can be seen as an oblique reference to the different realm of life in Buddhism, showing that the suffering, samsara, in every domain is what rotates the wheel. Weerasethakul is a master of the cinematography, being able to immerse the viewer into the Thai country-side to act as a visual anthropologist, leaving everything unsaid, ambiguous and oblique. He uses the fundamental concepts of the Buddhist teachings to show the pieces of life in a whole picture, to comment of the cyclicity not only of one insignificant life but also the cyclicity of time itself, of feeling, emotions and even national history in some sense. Though he never gives the answer, for example, the split of Tong and Jaai in two parts in the end of the film is left to the subjectivity of each viewer. The impermanence and cyclical nature of the life by the director in a way, so that the viewer can feel it and live through it with the characters, trying to find answers and dharma in a way.

sergelamarche The effects were good enough. The film is moving along very slowly though. I'm not sure I got the end of the film. Two of them duplicated. Not making sense with the ghosts or anything. The past lives are a bit strange and not all that well marked. Unless his past life was one of the blind fishes in the pond in the cave. It was strange and supernatural but lacked sense.

Takeshi-K This film won the 2010 Cannes Palme d'Or (best film award). Its incredible cinematography and excellent use of color combine to create an eerily beautiful atmosphere that is supremely transformative, but in terms of storytelling won't suit the palate of mainstream tastes.Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has a wonderful eye for human tragedy and a brilliant way of weaving Thai spirituality throughout the mundanity and at times absurdity of every day life. This film focuses on Uncle Boonmee. While he is dying he is beset by the ghosts of dead relatives; A terminally familiar Thai plot. With the scary appearance of Boonmee's dead son in the form of a red-eyed monkey spirit, its a movie that explores the scattered connection between the living and the dead, and the emotional resonance that bolsters it.Given only days to live, he demands that he be allowed to die at home where he becomes saturated by images of his past lives and their respective humor, tragedy and totality. If you liked this, I suggest you also like watching Tropical Malady another great film from my native country Thailand.

maxmiller4 This film is about all life everywhere right now. All of us. The other reviewers are right about Uncle Boonmee reliving many of the memorable occurrences and changes in his life, as shown by historically-set allegories. But the main thrust of this movie is the end.The director/author/persona/protagonist (Boonmee in the previous scenes), having died, finds his story fades away and is replaced with a clearer, more basic level of reality. He has always been a quiet Thai kid, dutifully training at a monastery. He is calm and focused enough to see outside of his own sphere. But he has this self control only because his mother bought him the freedom to do this, by sending him to the monastery. It is his sensitivity that allows him to see life in terms of stories about himself and others, and his sensitivity is apparent when he talks about his feelings toward the monastery. He also moves and showers mechanically because he is still, at base, afraid of this world.When he gets ready to leave the hotel room, he realizes that he has left a version of himself, a "scene" from his life, in that room. It shocks and dismays him that the thread of life is so flimsy, and his identity is so subjective. The persona, or viewer, is dismayed to realize that the base level reality feels fractured even more than the myths and legends.When he and his mother go out to the restaurant to connect more, they wind up not talking at all. And while they sit in a booth, more disconnected than ever, he hears heartfelt, sentimental, music playing from a computer where a similarly zombie-like man sits, staring blankly.This song is the denouement. It expresses all of the love, life, happiness, and soul that the modern man has tried to seek, quantify, and trap in a bottle (computer), while our species has completely lost the ability to live those themes in reality. The people in the restaurant listen to a beautiful, soulful, human song and it doesn't even inspire them to look at each other.The final shot is back in the hotel room where another version of himself is also disconnected from his family, this time without even anything "fun" going on. The family unit remains exactly as disconnected in this setting as in the other. In the booth, the mother sees her son's discontent with the real, modern world, but has no answers for him. In the hotel room, she doesn't even notice it enough to look at him.This movie is deeply sad and regretful of modern (future) society in all its forms: technology, distraction, the sharp decline of pure human interactions. If you will remember the beginning of the movie, primitives in a field at dusk, the family unit is so close to each other that the camera doesn't even need to focus on them or pick up their conversation. The cow walking away is the most interesting (i.e. distracting) thing that happens in the scene. It takes them a while to notice this, and even when they do they fail to notice spirits walking in the woods.Because they are happy, and just aren't pressured to care.Wild.