Ploy *
Pen-ek Ratanaruang, 2008
Thailand
@ Pacific Place

Slow and somewhat bewildering but lovely all the same.

See also: IMDb

Worldly Desires ***
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2005
Thailand
@ Anthology Film Archives

I saw this along with a few other shorts.

Worldly Desires takes the form of a meta–"making of" documentary for an imaginary film whose premise consists, so far as we are given to see, of little more than a line spoken by one of its actors: "Once upon a time a young couple fled into a jungle." This narrative is full of distress—moonlight scrambles through thick vegetation, anxious quests for a legendary tree—but the story of its making is pure Apichatpongian bliss: a breeze in the canopy, the delicate blip of moths against a fluorescent tube, a crew member relaxing on a stump, the sudden parting of a cloud.

The 40-minute piece opens with the nighttime shooting of a ridiculously infectious pop number, twice reprised before the end, which serves to bridge this jungle goodbye to the parental love song of Syndromes: "Love like my mother and father," the chanteuses sing, "will I be as lucky?" Other scraps of dialogue offer earthy ballast ("I forgot to bring the mosquito repellent"; "I don't like foreigners except for Keanu") or else send it all soaring to the ether ("Is the location very deep?" "As deep as you like" Indeed.).

See also: IMDb | Nathan Lee profile

Tropical Malady ***
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004
Thailand
@ Anthology Film Archives

Mr. Weerasethakul, who lives in Thailand and studied film and painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has an appreciation of the more humorous dislocations of globalization, like an aerobics class in the middle of a dusty town. "Tropical Malady" is filled with such minor disruptions (including a woman who talks about ghosts in one breath and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" in the next), but the biggest disruption takes place when the storytelling shifts from realism to allegory. Set in the deepest, darkest heart of the jungle, this part of the film finds Keng tracking a ghostly figure who periodically assumes the shape of a tiger. That the figure should turn out to be the soldier's elusive lover, the object of his desire, should come as no surprise. Frankly, I was more taken aback by the talking baboon.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic | Manohla Dargis review

Syndromes and a Century ***
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2007
Thailand
@ IFC Center

I feel like I've been reading about this guy forever. In fact, I figured out how to spell his name long before actually seeing this. Basically we get a short drama based around a hospital which takes place twice, once in more rural surroundings, and once in the city. The first half is supposedly Weerasethakul's parents' generation (they were doctors), and the second half his own. The individual scenes in each half (many are repeated, some more precisely than others) are largely indeterminate, and the connections/contrasts between the opposing scenes are a big part of why I'm considering seeing this again before it's run ends at the IFC, something I don't think I've ever done before. Well, the mightily pleasant soundtrack and the particularly the gorgeous green backdrops for most all scenes in the first half of the film certainly wouldn't detract from replay value. Actually, I could just watch the slow, hypnotic dolly shot opening to a full-screen view of waving grass, over which the opening credits play, all day.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic