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Movies / On DVD / Tropical Malady
Tropical Malady

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Tropical Malady (2005)

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Reviews Counted:41

Fresh:31

Rotten:10

Average Rating:7.1/10

Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Jun 29, 2005 Limited

Synopsis: At one point in TROPICAL MALADY, a woman tells the principle characters a traditional Thai story about ghosts and greed, and mentions the TV show WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE in the next breath.... At one point in TROPICAL MALADY, a woman tells the principle characters a traditional Thai story about ghosts and greed, and mentions the TV show WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE in the next breath. It's precisely that kind of disjunction that fuels this film from maverick director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON), who divides his tale into two sharply-contrasted halves that suggest genre codes while defying them. Opening on a group of soldiers posing with a dead body, the film slowly makes its way to a country home where a family takes the troops in, and eventually settles on the episodic courtship between handsome soldier Keng (Banlop Lomnoi), and bashful country boy Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee), both non-actors. Their relationship unfolds in ecstatic, tender vignettes that leave much to the audience's imagination, but the chaste touches and huge smiles the young men share are cut short when Tong disappears into darkness. When the lights come up again Keng--or, as he is referred to now, the Soldier--is a player in the retelling of an old Thai fable, while Tong is now a wild, shape-shifting ghost. The two trail one another through a jungle filled with unearthly sounds, and the line between the pursuer and the pursued disappears. Eventually the Soldier receives unlikely counsel and, following the advice he receives, allows himself to be consumed and devoured by his love. Mystifying and utterly elusive, Weerasethakul's film resists allegorical or conventional interpretation, with a pace and inner logic that will challenge the patience of some, but is sure to reward those willing to travel the distance to the end. [More]

Starring: Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee

Starring: Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee

Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Producer: Charles de Meaux
Studio: Strand Releasing

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Release:

Nov 1, 2005

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Tropical Malady

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Humid transcendence

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
09/05/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

Camera work in the first half of 'Tropical Malady' appears jumpy and interrupted by confusing cuts and artsy tricks.

Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews | comment Comment
07/12/09
Donald J. Levit
Donald J. Levit
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

Maintains a visual richness, but loses its way with heavy-going forays into mythology and mysticism.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
03/01/07
Eric Monder
Eric Monder
Film Journal International
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out

The most original film I've seen in years.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
04/24/06
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/01/06
Empire Magazine

The division of the two halves is pronounced and disruptive ... but the filmmaking is assured and focused, reaching for abstraction and poetry.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
01/02/06
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies

A weird, gorgeous and disorienting act of exploration

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
12/23/05
Jesse Paddock
Jesse Paddock
culturevulture.net

As stylistically striking as it is adventurous.

Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | comment Comment
12/20/05
Nick Schager
Nick Schager
Lessons of Darkness
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
10/08/05
Boston Phoenix
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
09/26/05
AV Club

A hypnotic head-scratcher that manages to be oddly fascinating and frustratingly tedious at the same time. Eventually, though, tedium wins.

Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune | comment Comment
09/19/05
Sean Means
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune

It goes from a love story in the making to the mystical realm of legends where men can be transformed into wild beasts and monkey guides offer sage advice.

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
09/18/05
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

It's as if two completely different movies got spliced together in the editing room, or in the projection booth.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
09/16/05
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

The film evolves into something deeper, a story about the atavistic wildness within people.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
09/02/05
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

For an exquisite taste of sensory cinema, look no further.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
08/19/05
Jeff Shannon
Jeff Shannon
Seattle Times

A film more textural than narrative, it's for viewers willing to lose themselves in a truly sensual jungle experience.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
08/18/05
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Some fantasy films make the leap from reality to reverie relatively seamlessly, hopscotching between the two states without leaving the audience behind. Tropical Malady is not one of those.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
08/18/05
Jessica Reaves
Jessica Reaves
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Apichatpong poetically expresses the transformative quality of love, realizing a kind of intense profundity that simply could not be reached in any other medium.

Full Review Source: MovieMartyr.com | comment Comment
08/07/05
Jeremy Heilman
Jeremy Heilman
MovieMartyr.com

Weerasethakul’s confident composition of sight and sound induces a trance-like state with an elegant suggestion: that all-consuming love is for old souls.

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
08/05/05
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews
 
 
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