Tropical Malady is a very strange ride but ultimately a mesmerising one. The movie is split into two seemingly disconnected halves. To me the first part of the movie is full of the quotidian – an immersion in modern Asian life so to speak – and the second half is like the details of an oral folk tale of some ancient past resurrected out of the surrounding forests. Somehow the two just mesh - it's a pity that Indian cinema cannot conjure up anything that is so verite and yet so feverish and mystical. Apichatpong's (aka Joe) work is not for everyone but it is truly original.
Well, the director has been at it again and this movie seems to have been a Cannes winner. I have a few of the director's films thanks to a Thailand visit but they are generally thin on the ground. Maybe the Cannes win will change it, though I can't exactly see a stampede, even amongst art house afficiandos.
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