This does not mean that the award of "Uncle Bomi’s Past and Present" was an accident or mistake. In fact, this work breaks the usual narrative mode of movies and also breaks the existing framework of people’s understanding of "life." Established a broader perspective on the pursuit of movies and the scrutiny of life.
Because of his feelings about the digitization of the film’s photography and production methods, the director Apichatbang used a traditional camera and 16 cm film to shoot "Uncle Bomi’s Past and Present", using traditional shooting techniques and long shots. , Filters, montage editing, single frame picture, blank shot, voice-over, and soundtrack processing for enhanced environmental sound. This return to the traditional way of filming and the theme of the film itself-rethinking about life and the film, collide with a mysterious atmosphere and effect.
■ "Uncle Bomi's Past and Present" uses a non-linear narrative method to tell the story of Uncle Bomi suffering from severe kidney disease at the end of his life. The whole film is divided into six parts: homecoming, return, memory, farewell, and death And funeral.
Homecoming
Bomi uncle was originally a successful business owner of the farm, but in the twilight of renal failure, he decided to leave the hospital, accompanied by Jane sister and nephew Arab East, back to the edge of the forest through the orchard In the last days, he asked Ajia, an illegal worker from Laos, to perform a simple kidney dialysis operation for him.
Return
in the evening back to the orchard, Bomi uncle and sister and nephew together with dinner on the terrace, the results of Bomi uncle that has been dead for 19 years, his wife and son missing more than 13 years after another coming out. Uncle Bomi's wife appeared as a ghost, and his son appeared as a monkey spirit covered with long black hair. Although the three of them were surprised at the appearance of this "alien", they did not have the slightest fear. They gathered together and chatted about the past life. Uncle Pommy also took out his own photos for his wife and son to watch.
memory
Uncle Bomi intends to hand over the orchard to the younger sister-in-law after he passes away. The wife’s sister has long been separated from her husband, and there are only two daughters who will be married sooner or later. Uncle Bomi hopes that the younger sister-in-law can move to the orchard behind him. Only rely on life.
Uncle Bomi’s orchard is located in the north of Thailand, adjacent to Laos. The two countries and the Communist Party of China fought fierce battles here many years ago, but the past is over. Although Uncle Bomi participated in that battle himself, Doesn't care about hiring illegal immigrants from Laos.
Uncle Bomi took his sister-in-law to visit his orchard, he joked with the workers in the orchard, and he gave the sister-in-law the honey made by the bees he raised. The sister-in-law picked the fruit from the fruit tree to eat, and shared it with the dogs in the garden. This is a self-sufficient and peaceful orchard, where plants, animals, insects, locals and foreigners all live here.
In the silence, a memory suddenly emerged, it was the story of an ancient princess. This princess is noble and possesses everything that is admirable in the world, yet she has an extremely ugly appearance. Under the escort of everyone, the princess came to a pond. She looked at her reflection in the pool, feeling sad and sad. Suddenly, the reflection in the pool turned into a fairy-like beauty. It turned out that the catfish in the pool felt the princess's sadness and changed her reflection. Catfish tells the princess that he thinks the princess is beautiful and extraordinary, and he doesn't understand why she clings to the phantom in the pool instead. Step by step, the princess walked into the pool, removing the gold and silver decorations from her body one by one, asking the catfish to give herself beauty and love. So in this pool of water, the princess and the catfish had sex. Saying
goodbye to
Uncle Bomy lying in bed for a simple kidney dialysis, but this time it was his long-dead wife who performed it for him. Looking at his wife, Uncle Bomi sighed with emotion. He hugged his wife tightly, told about his fear of death, and said that he hoped to meet his wife in heaven after death. However, his wife told him that the so-called heaven is actually an exaggeration. There is nothing special there. People will become ghosts after death, and ghosts are attracted by the living.
die
Uncle Bomi called the sister-in-law and gave her everything behind him, saying that he was going to leave, but he didn't know where he was going. So my sister-in-law called my nephew Adong, and Uncle Bomi followed Uncle Bomi's wife into the forest. After a hard trek, they came to a huge cave. Vaguely, I saw many monkey spirits jumping among the trees and wandering. Stopped outside the cave.
After walking to the depths of the cave, Uncle Pommy felt a strange and familiar feeling. He felt that in a certain previous life, he was born in this cave shaped like a womb, but at that time he was a human, animal, or male. It’s still a female, so I don’t remember at all. Uncle Bomi lay down in the cave and mentioned to his relatives a dream he had had the night before.
The dream world takes place in the future, and the ruler there has super powers that can make people disappear. They hunted down the so-called "pre-life people". Once caught, they would shine a beam of light on the person in the previous life, so all the memory of this person, including those in the past, this life, and the afterlife, would be projected on the screen, and then this The past life will disappear without a trace.
After recounting his dreams, Uncle Bomi's wife quietly opened the tube used for dialysis on his body, allowing the fluid in his body to flow on the ground. The sky was shining, the front half of the cave was flooded with sunlight, and Uncle Pommy was at the junction of darkness and light in the cave.
The funeral
sister-in-law Azhen organized a funeral ceremony for Uncle Bomi, and his nephew Adong temporarily ordained a monk for him and bid farewell to his uncle as a monk. By convention, Adong must live in the temple during the funeral, and cannot wash, eat, or have any contact with women. However, on the night of the funeral, Adong violated the regulations and sneaked into the hotel room where his aunt Azhen was to take a bath, because he was scared in the temple alone. After taking a shower, Adong went out to eat with his aunt Azhen, and even went to the KTV room. Strangely, when Adong and Azhen were sitting in the KTV room, the two of them were sitting in the hotel room watching TV at the same time, as if their souls were out of their bodies.
■ "Uncle Bomi's Past and Present Life" was inspired by a small book written in 1983. It tells a person who went to a temple to meditate and saw his true experience in his past life. Although the creativity comes from the outside, the content in the film is entirely created by the director Apichatpong based on his own memories, beliefs and feelings. What reflects inside is the director's own understanding and observation of the film and life.
For a long time, movies are similar to novels. They are always used to "tell stories", telling a story that has a beginning, an end, antecedents, and consequences through real or false character plots. However, Apichatpong However, I think that film creation is not about presenting reality or truth, but conveying a very subjective thing, which is a way to approach one's own experience. However, this kind of creation method based on subjective consciousness is completely different from the stream of consciousness technique that emphasizes character consciousness.
Generally speaking, the narrative method always starts from the first person or the third person. In the narrative process of the first person "I", the subjective and true experience is emphasized, and the narrative process of the third person "he" emphasizes the objectiveness. And rational observation. The former is the most extreme presentation of the stream of consciousness, while the latter is the most comprehensive from the omniscience perspective. However, in "Uncle Bomi's Past and Present", director Apichatbang breaks this pattern and narrates in the first person but at the same time from an omniscient perspective.
The omniscient perspective is often used in commercial films. The film simultaneously captures the emotions and behaviors of different characters in different situations, just like a supreme god observing all beings. This technique can prevent the film from being dull or incomprehensible because it develops multiple storylines at the same time and presents the ideas of different characters to the audience in parallel. To criticize.
Apichatpong, however, eliminates the unrealistic properties of the omniscience perspective by understanding the existence of life more broadly. In "Uncle Bomi’s Past and Present Life", there is no longer a boundary between existence and non-existence. Humans and animals, creatures and ghosts, past and future lives all coexist. The so-called heaven is not a place, but life and The relationship between lives. In the endless cycle of reincarnation, Uncle Bomi was once a human, an animal, a creature, and a ghost. He said that the stories he told may happen in this life, in the past life, or in the afterlife. And everything in his memory may come from personal experience, from dreams, from legends, or even from fantasy.
In traditional Eastern religions, what is emphasized is the continuation of life, the essential commonality between humans and animals, and the excessive coexistence between souls and ghosts. All beings and all states are only the momentary presentations of a long life, a fleeting stinky skin, then a single individual can naturally possess the transcendent ability of the omniscience perspective, and this omniscience ability is no longer limited to this "life" and This person". Ever since, Uncle Bomi, who can remember his past life, can see himself now, see the past life, see the next life, see the ghost, see the monkey, and see the soul out of the body.
At the very beginning of the film, there is a passage saying, "I am in the mountains and forests, I am transformed into an animal, looking at the past lives and sentient beings", and then in the camera is a cow wandering alone in the forest after breaking free from the bondage, but it was not long before the owner was caught Looking to bring it back, and in the depths of the forest, standing a monkey spirit with red eyes, he silently stared at the camera, watching everything.
As Apichatpong said, what the film conveys is a very subjective thing, a method of approaching one's own experience, and this own experience, as believed by Eastern traditional religions, contains time, space, and species. The infinite memory and understanding of the above, therefore, the narrative of the film no longer has a pattern, no frame, and no subject limitation. The story of Uncle Bomi can be the story of the director or the story of you and me.
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