In Pen-Ek's lens, the direct expression of loneliness is to walk outside of time in a state of silence. Books, rooms, beaches, bathtubs, food, Pen-Ek always seems to be deliberately avoiding some usual things in the tropical rain forest, even the background color is quiet white.
At one point I really couldn't believe that this young man named Pen-Ek actually came from Thailand. It is only with summer all year round. The air is full of dampness and miscellaneousness, and the surrounding area should be filled with people's voices, but such a silent and almost suffocating story actually multiplies.
It is also heard that people put the hat of formalism on it because of disgust. But loneliness is originally a thing that has more form than state. You can never make a complete fragment with exact sentences to advertise or just describe the moment when it quietly pokes out a corner from the human heart.
Kenji's loneliness is not expressed in words. A person who has piled up his own world with endless books is not something that anyone can walk into. The setting of Pen-Ek is quite interesting. When KENJI's brother came to his house for the first time, he found that there was no TV in the room. If it were not for being cautious, the symbolic meaning of the TV here was nothing more than representing KENJI's isolation: it was not only for the outside world, but also for himself. Everyone outside.
NOI's loneliness began with the death of his sister NID. However, I often suspect that the fragility she exhibits is not the pain of being traumatized by the family, but a state of interdependence facing disintegration. She doesn't love her sister, or at least her feelings for her are much lower than for herself. This is a character who is accustomed to being above others and demanding people and things outside of him according to his own needs. Her loneliness is more of a kind of fear, but also a kind of physical instinct. After meeting KENJI, she always emphasized that her sister's death made her very lonely.
Everyone knows that loneliness or loneliness in the bones cannot be explained to outsiders.
NID may be more similar to KENJI in temperament. Silence, only live in your own world. The sensitivity of the same kind to the same kind is sometimes amazing. KENJI's several fantasies about NID are always fascinating. The first time NOI was crying on his lap, his awkwardness was exactly the same as the way NOI slept on his lap afterwards. He thought that this person might be more NID, or at that time he discovered that NOI had the same kind of loneliness that was closer to him, a state that he thought would only exist in himself and NID.
The strange thing about reality and dreams is that the former is always cold, while the latter will give out more casual warmth for no reason.
The factor that KENJI breaks into the life of NOI is to escape and seek coexistence. And for him, she also went from being senseless at first, to disgust, to casual, to dependence.
Literature does have a height unattainable by movies; however, mirror images can always surpass words and reach another level of transformation. Time is obviously weakened in many empty shots of Pen-Ek. He prefers to leave it blank, and then let you guess the intention behind it. This is my favorite place. Without something eager to express, it is easier for you to fill up a certain part of the story in your mind in the thousands of fragments.
Two people who didn't communicate much, lived together without the slightest desire, and were penetrated by an obscure thread. Personalities are completely opposite-one has a cleanliness, the other is carefree; the other is reticent, and the other is outgoing. They don’t understand each other’s languages and rely on poor English for limited communication.
KENJI's suicidal tendency was gradually eroded in this unsuspecting state. When the original state of loneliness has been changed unconsciously, he will regain a sense of integrity. NOI was not the person he cared about at first, but the person who finally walked into his heart. This is a perfection for each other, and also completed the most complete salvation-KENJI's murder and NOI's murder.
Even if the plot exists, even if the narrative is complete, it is still secondary. It serves to fill the overall sense of alienation. So watching Pen-Ek approach KENJI unhurriedly, taking pictures of him slowly placing all the objects on his body neatly, but suddenly turning straight down, cutting to the face of NOI waiting at the airport, and then he has come to Japan to change. Another image of NOI, rushed out to meet KENJI who returned home.
The most cruel thing is that KENJI smokes a cigarette that he never touches—maybe it is also a symbol. It means that KENJI, who was accustomed to loneliness, can no longer leave the space where there is no NOI, so she uses her habitual smoking action to replace it. Her existence-this is another kind of bitter interdependence, because NOI is still waiting at the airport at the moment, for what he once said: "wait for me". She might think he will show up after all and take her with him. And no one knew how long she would wait.
Regardless of whether two people love each other or not, there is only the mark left by each other in their world. I was lonely before I met, but after I met, I was still lonely. In Pen-Ek's narrative, loneliness is left for time to complete. When his final narrative can completely match or echo the narrative in the first half, you will easily find that time has never flowed before.
Since time is still, people are always alone.
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