Tropical Malady is a 2004 Thairomanticpsychological dramaart film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film has a bifurcated structure; it is separated into two segments – the first is a romance between two men, and the second a mysterious tale about a soldier lost in the woods, bedeviled by the spirit of a shaman. It won the Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, and was the first Thai film to be in the main competition at Cannes. It is also the first Thai film to win a prize at one of the "Big Three" film festivals.
Synopsis
Keng, is a soldier assigned to a post in a small city in rural Thailand. The troops' main duties, it seems, is to investigate the mysterious slaying of cattle at local farms. While in the field one day, Keng meets Tong. Later, Keng sees Tong riding in a truck in town. The two men have made a connection and embark on a romance, taking trips in the countryside. Then one night, the country boy wanders off into the dark. The film's narrative abruptly shifts to a different story, about a soldier sent alone into the woods to find a lost villager. In the woods, the soldier encounters the spirit of a tiger shaman, who taunts and bedevils the soldier, causing him to run through the woods and become lost and isolated himself.
Cast
Banlop Lomnoi as Keng
Sakda Kaewbuadee as Tong
Huai Dessom
Sirivech Jareonchon
Udom Promma
Release
In Thailand, the film screened for just 10 days at the Siam Theatre.
Reception
At the press screening at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, several audience members left before the film was over and some of those who stayed until the end booed it. The film received generally poor reviews from such industry journals as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, but then won the Jury Prize from the jury, headed by Quentin Tarantino. Deborah Young of Variety stated in May 2004, it had a "weakly structured story" and "its loosely connected scenes will sorely try the patience of most viewers". Manohla Dargis from The New York Times on Oct 2004 noted it was "unabashedly strange" and this is a "young filmmaker pushing at the limits of cinematic narrative with grace and a certain amount of puckish willfulness". Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian stated "masterpierce, cult classic or just barking mad?", it "makes me want to burst out laughing at its sheer audacity, its eccentricity, its unashamed aspiration to poetry" and it is "sumptuous and scary, and a brilliant adventure in structure and style". S. F. Said from The Telegraph in 2005 noted it was "weird yet utterly beguiling" and "something from another world". The film has generally been met with favorable reviews since then. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77%, based on 44 reviews, and an average rating of 7.1/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine ranked Tropical Malady the third best film of 2005; the aggregation site They Shoot Pictures, Don't They has also found the film to be the ninth most acclaimed cinematic work of the 21st century and in 2016 the work ranked 52nd on an international critics' poll of the greatest films since 2000. In 2019, The Guardian ranked Tropical Malady 84th in its 100 Best Films of the 21st Century list.
