Tropical Malady

Weerasethakul would appear to live in different worlds. One of them is deeply rooted in the mythical stories of his childhood in the countryside of Thailand. Another, that seems to be far removed from this, is that of the avant-garde art of his training in Chicago. A special feature of the films of Weerasethakul is that these worlds are not mixed frenetically, but exist side by side in a way that has not really been shown before. His latest film is also pleasantly difficult to place. Too much refined art to mesh with the local traditions, and too deeply rooted in jungle ghost stories to be followed as a feature. In this case, that is undoubtedly a quality. A film like this can only be made by a director who really does believe in roaming ghosts. The film is made up of two separate related parts. In the first part, which is set on the edge of town, the soldier Keng (Banlop Lomnoi) meets the country boy Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee). They have a kind of homo-erotic holiday romance without this becoming sexually explicit. The second part has a much more magical mood and is set in the jungle. Tong, in the capacity of forest ranger, goes hunting a legendary human tiger, or maybe a magician-tiger. Tropical Malady, incomparable or not, has a breathtaking beauty. Seldom was the supernatural portrayed so credibly in cinema with such minimal means. (GjZ)