What is unique in the film Tropical Malady (2004) is that it breaks the framework of traditional narratives. The weak plot link within the film and the seemingly unrelated two parts are rather confusing for those who are lost in fragmented plots. It is meaningless to interpret this film from specific narrative logic. The real magic of the films and the moving images is not only about how abundant story has been constructed, sometimes the images itself and the imagery is enough to bring the “shock” effect to audience.
In fact, I could not figure out the relationship between the former part and the latter part till the ending scene of the film, which is gloomy, still, but rather tense moment. We see the soldier on the ground and the tiger in the shadow are staring at each other without any movement. We hear the monologue of the soldier “Now, I am here. Mother. Father. Fear. Sad. All of these are so true which make me feel my life. Once I have swallowed your soul , we are neither humans nor animals.” (Above is my translation of Chinese subtitles because English subtitles cannot be found.) Then is the monologue of the tiger, “I miss you, soldier.” Then came the scene, or the secret painting that the solder was kneeling down and the tiger was absorbing his soul and we hear the whisper “I will give you my body, soul and my memory.”
Then some clues of the link in two parts can be found. The same soldier, the Tong in former part, the missing Tong and the tiger in latter part, are all metaphor of humanity. While soldier signifies the rationality of human being tame and educated by civilization, the imagery of tiger represents the natural instinct of human which is being suppressed. So that we can suppose that tiger is the externalization of missing Tong. Compared to soldier, Tong is an illiterate guy who has not formal job and can not drive . He is merely civilized or in other words, he is the animality of primitive man. Here we see the director's sincere exploration of id of humans. The final scene of tiger absorbing man's soul has implies his choice. He escapes from the mainstream values that praise rationality and regards civilization as a root of human pain,appealing on a way to release human nature.
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