An adventurous experiment in cinematic storytelling, this low-budget independent Thai feature is structured like the Surrealist idea of the "exquisite corpse." One person begins a story, and a succession of others continue it in whatever way they see fit. Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul gleans his participants from all over the Thai countryside. The story, begun by a young woman with a personal history harrowing enough for its own movie, concerns a wheelchair-bound boy and his enigmatic tutor
Dogfar. As the tale is passed along between a variety of rural characters (including, at one point, a traveling dance troupe who perform it for an audience), everything from kidnappings to space aliens are added to the mix. The film alternates between the storytellers and the story they tell, along with "behind the scenes" shots and other documentary footage that blur the line between fiction and non-fiction and make the film itself a witty, quirky exploration of the very notion of storytelling. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi
This masterpiece from new Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul blends fiction and nonfiction into a form of cinema previously forged by Hou Hsiao-hsien and Abbas Kiarostami.
Mysterious Object at Noon is fascinating not for its conclusiveness (which it inevitably lacks) but its construction. It is a film made with little domestic influence, austere in its appearance and unique in its form.
This masterpiece from new Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul blends fiction and nonfiction into a form of cinema previously forged by Hou Hsiao-hsien and Abbas Kiarostami.
I am half Thai and adopted from Thailand at the age of four. The impressions that I have stored in my memory have not much to do with the tourist brochures. I never understood the Thai culture nor ever had the desire to explore. With artists like this coming out of this country, however, I am finally interested.
May 22, 2006
jutamanee jutamanee
A quiet, experimental docufiction about nothing. No, let me start again: A quiet, experimental docufiction about everything. The remarkable, highly original although far from perfect feature-length debut from one of the worlds best filmmakers.
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