The film as a whole is unique in breaking the traditional narrative structure—two seemingly unrelated chapters that are fused together in imagery. Not only that, but the director, intentionally or unintentionally, continues to weaken the plot links within specific chapters. The whole film is like a poetic fragment scattered all over the place, and these fragments also show allegorical mythology and religious imagery from time to time. I think the reason a lot of viewers give up on the film is because they get lost in these fragmented plots. The opening method of this movie obviously cannot be cut from the official plot logic to infer and analyze the plot. Apichatpong's moving video style comes from his Buddhist beliefs, and there is always a sense of returning to nature between the stillness and movement of the film. Character performances that do not show mountains and dew, trivial and ordinary records that seem to be everyday, and the original rich tropical jungle background, make the viewer feel a quiet remoteness, as if entering a void world. The film is divided into two chapters. The first chapter of the film (part.1) The film begins with the words: "All of us are beasts by nature, and our duty as human beings is to play the role of tamers, so that our animal nature In control, and even teach them to perform tasks, and this is the difference between man and beast" - [Don Nakajima] Chapter 1 Overview: The soldier keng and his comrades found a man in the jungle. corpse. So they carried away the body with laughter and laughter, and stationed in a village in Thailand. There, soldier Keng met Tong, a country boy. Then a relationship developed, and all the pages that followed were devoted to their conversations and routines when they met on a date. Tag: One of the reasons for the poetic charm of Apichatpong's films is that he is good at subtly transforming the everyday into the extraordinary. These surreal pieces of everyday life can range from an event to a few lines of dialogue. As well as many long lenses, the use of push rails and the grasp of light are also indispensable. Some too small details are not listed one by one. First of all, from the perspective of content 1. The attitude of the characters in the film to face death. In this chapter, death is mentioned twice. The first time the soldiers found the corpse in the jungle, they were still amused and even scrambled to take pictures with the corpse. The second problem was that Tong's dog had cancer, and the doctor advised them to give the dog an anaesthetic injection. Tong's reaction was still so calm and indifferent. They didn't seem to care about death. Obviously, this was the emphasis of the Buddhist concept of reincarnation. This has manifested itself in the director's other films. Especially "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" and "Mekong Hotel". 2. tong and keng touch each other, but don't kiss. The lovers in the movie are very strange. They dated and chatted, touched and stroked each other when they were making out. At the climax, Keng picked up Tong's freshly washed hand and started sniffing and licking. And tong also began to repeat keng's movements. In the whole film, we only don't see them kissing. Judging from the frequent long shots, the director intentionally emphasizes touching, sniffing, playing and other behaviors, but only no kissing occurs. We hardly see kissing between animals, which is an important difference between humans and animals. tong and keng almost took up the entire first chapter from acquaintance to love. It can be seen that the director emphasizes the animal nature of human beings in this chapter. This also makes sense, why there are some weird characters in the whole movie, for example, they always show the same Muna smile as advertising posters, but the camera always likes to stare at and record these seemingly insignificant smiles. meaningfully everyday. (This also sets the stage for the second chapter) 3. The image of tong Tong comes from a village in Thailand. He is an illiterate, no-professional, and uncaring young man who likes to wander around in the jungle at ordinary times. tong helps out in an ice factory, a fun job that contrasts with the ambience and climate of the tropics. It can be seen that Tong's image is incompatible with the general environment. There is also a scene in the film. Tong wears a military uniform and goes to the mall. The boss recommends him to buy shoes. He explains to the boss: "I am neither a soldier nor have a job. Wearing a uniform can only increase my worth." Obviously, Tong is a human being. The representative of animal nature, Tong's image is very primitive, and there is a distance from human civilization. 4. Keng's image Keng's occupation is a soldier, and a soldier's job is to perform tasks, which is similar to the sentence on the original subtitle of the film: "Our duty as human beings is to play the role of tamers and keep our animality under control. In contrast to tong, keng is very rational (as seen from the adventure of exiting the cave), literate, polite and can drive, and keng means a tamed human being. 5. A fable told by Tong's mother Tong's mother told a story to Tong and Keng: "Once upon a time, there were two poor peasants who met a young monk. The young monk asked them do you want to be rich? The two peasants replied: "Think". So the little monk asked them to go to the river to get a few stones, the farmers moved back the stones and saw that they were all turned into gold and silver, so they continued to go back to the river to move more, but they came back to see the gold and silver Become a toad. This fable illustrates the greed of human nature. 6. Cave adventure Apichatpong in "Recalling Uncle Boonmee's Past Life", compares the cave to the womb. This is the place of birth. After the fable , Tong's mother brought Keng and Tong to the cave to worship the gods, and at the same time led them through the tunnel to climb the cave, Tong's mother told them: "This place leads all the way to the lake outside, it is very incredible, only those who are protected can pass through. This reminds Buddhist scholars to think that Siddhartha spent 6 years in the Dragon Cave, but he still did not realize the Tao. He wanted to go to the river outside the cave to wash his body. After meditating for 49 days, it became the story of the world's solution. In the process of wearing and climbing, keng became cowardly because of fear, which means that human beings "give up the practice" because of their own greed and cowardice, so that they can't understand the Tao. 7. The wooden genital tong mother said when chatting: "Since she went to the temple to buy a wooden genitalia, the store's business has improved a lot." Thailand's worship of genitals has long been heard. There is a wooden genitals park in Thailand, where display With different colored genitals. Genital means sex, a symbol of biological reproduction, and an instinct of animals. This episode is added here, and it also faintly reveals the director's encouragement for the return of human nature. Technically the first chapter, with a lot of long-shot stares at the action and behavior of the characters, brings the central theme together into a focal point. The follow-up shaking on the shoulders formed a documentary-style routine. And the slow track that is often used for transitions creates a lot of ambiguous depth to the picture. Even the raised car exhaust is an Apichatpong-esque twist. Before talking about the second chapter, it needs to be mentioned: at the junction of the first and second chapters, Apichatpong very aggressively used a black screen to transition the scene. The black screen lasted for 10 seconds. Mistaken for a screening accident. Many comments called the black screen a "story break." This is an over-interpretation of an under-understood film. I think this black screen is beyond the narrative in the film, it is an extra period of extremely quiet contemplation (like meditation, meditation) that the director gives the audience to enter the second chapter, it is not related to any plot break, because the story The clues have always been coherent, haven't they? I call it "Apichatpong-style black screen". Because in 2008, it used the silent method of black screen to resist the inspection of Thailand's inspection system. Chapter 2 (part2) Overview of Chapter 2: There is a legend - once upon a time, there was a Taoist shaman who could transform into various animals. He roamed in the jungle and would become a villager to tease passers-by. Because the villagers and beasts in the village began to disappear, the soldiers were ordered to go to the woods alone with guns to find the tigers. After that, there was a deep battle between the soldiers and the tigers. Tag: This one doesn't have many images, just pay attention to the changes in the behavior and relationship between the tiger and the soldier. (The soldier here is still the keng of the first chapter, but the director did not emphasize and distinguish his personal attributes) The whole scene was shot in the woods. This forest is like a dojo for practice. The soldier's walkie-talkie fails, cutting off communication with the outside world. Here, soldiers experience loneliness, contradiction, confrontation, pain, killing, confusion, and decision. In the end, the soldiers were freed from the binary opposition in their inner world, and their souls were handed over and unified. It can be said that everything seen in the second chapter is the externalized image of the director's inner world. Many moviegoers feel that Apichatpong's films are more like a dream than a dream, and that's for sure, because these stories are drawn from his inner ever-changing mind. A soldier means a rational tiger after people have been tamed by civilized education, means a person's suppressed nature. In the second chapter, there are many battles between soldiers and humanoid tigers, which are impressive for example: the soldiers tried to "lead the snake out of the hole" to kill the tiger many times, and it was the scene where the soldier and the tiger met, and the two sides began to fight fiercely. long shoot. When we didn't know why, the orangutan in the woods spoke to the soldier, it reminded the soldier: "The tiger has been following you like a shadow, he is lonely, I see that you will be its prey and companion, he is in You can smell your breath from a few mountains away, and soon you will feel the same way, kill it and free it from the soul world, or let it devour you and let you into his world." After listening to the orangutan's words, the soldier went to the lake the next day, grabbed a handful of mud and rubbed it on his body, trying to get rid of his original smell so that the tiger couldn't smell it. The tiger, who had lost the breath of a soldier, cried and wailed in the jungle as if he had lost his mind. Until we understand: it turns out that the tigers and soldiers here are the inner competition that everyone has experienced, how vivid and intriguing everything is. At the end of the film, we see a man's devotion to his true self. The soldier on the ground and the tiger standing in the tree stare at each other, and the soldier's monologue says: "Now, here I am. Mother. Father. Fear. Sorrow. It's all so real. It makes me feel my My own life. Once I devour your soul, we are neither human nor animals. At this point, the tiger monologues: "I miss you, soldier. "A picture appeared: the soldier was kneeling on the ground, and the tiger was eating the soul of the soldier. At this moment, the narrator began to whisper again: "Devil, I give you my body, my soul, and my memory." "Then, with the shaking dark leaves, the film ends. Here, the director explains his choice. This In addition to the above-mentioned hidden images, the mystery of the film is that he breaks away from the mainstream values of "praising reason and extolling the civilized soul". He regards reason and civilized soul as a bondage and finds the source of human anxiety and suffering. It tells that human nature should be released back into the vast "nature". WeChat account: Spring Tao
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