Cemetery of Splendor

I was super excited to see this film after hearing great things about the visuals and the interplay of myth and modern life... but the experience fell flat for me. It felt like the makers of the movie were trying to transgress just for the sake of transgression, like filming someone crapping in the woods for almost three minutes, without having any underlying reasons for the filmic transgressions. The pace was lax, the visuals were not all that spectacular, and the overall story tried for a forced thematic resonance to make up for the fact that nothing really happens.

It’s an okay film, had to watch it for a class so I watched for specific themes. Not Hollywood quality but if you appreciate non-commercial productions, this is for you. My concentration span is quite good but if yours isn’t you might fall asleep watching because it’s not all action packed.

Those familiar with Thai "ghost" movies (a perennial, lucrative theme) will see this as a success in raising the genre to an art form. I enjoyed the movie.

A director in complete control of his film, music (minimal), ambient sounds, pacing, color. A slow burn, thoughtful, beautiful.

Zero stars: not only for the missing subtitles, but the difficulty of reaching anyone at Amazon to fix the problem and obtain the correct version with English subtitles to download to my TV. I really want to watch this. Please respond, Thanks!

Astounding film. Beautiful transfer.

Another winner by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Awesome!!!

Apichatpong Weerasethakul does it again, with yet another meditative exercise in gentle dreamlike surrealism. A school is turned into a makeshift hospital after soldiers have suddenly started sleeping, and this is where the mainstay of Apichatpong's films, Jenjira Pongpas, shows up as a disabled character who is a volunteer to help them. Coloured lights are placed at their beds, thought to help them awake. When a couple of soldiers do awake in Jen's presence, she wonders what it all means and whether she's been dreaming all this time, to which the psychic says to just open her eyes very wide to check. Jen is an interesting character, disabled but not letting that get to her, acts vulgar like in her talks about sex, and dismissing that she's old which gives her character more energy than the other much younger characters. It's perplexing at times, with certain shots like a chicken walking by with its children, a scene of magical chairs using tree stumps, or walking through the forest while a psychic friend embodies a sleeping soldier walking through an invisible palace. What does the government digging up the ground mean? Is the school actually built on top of a cemetery where dead kings suck the souls of the soldiers to fight in their unending battle and that's why the soldiers sleep? The first and last shot being complimentary adds weight to the funereal tone.Apichatpong is really good at bringing the supernatural down to earth in these modern fairytales but the moral of the fables isn't as crystal clear. His dreamlike narrative is helped immensely by the arresting cinematography (DP Diego Garcia), especially exemplified in this wordless ~7min coloured lights scene which is one of the most mesmerising I've seen in a film from last year. This is slow cinema to a T, but that doesn't stop there being humour at points like Jen's realisation that she's in the presence of dead royal princesses. More people should watch this unique Thai filmmaker's work.

Don't expect a linear narrative or any of the familiar Hollywood tropes, this is refreshingly original in every way.Quietly engaging and often very funny.The central female character is portrayed with warmth and relaxed insight, a film of real emotional intelligence.It is tempting to force meaning and interpretation onto the story (e.g. the significance of the soldiers' sleeping sickness) but the film's elusive and playful qualities are very much part of the charm.

arrived on time and not damaged

Perfect film dis guy rules

Apicha tpong is a genius and this film confirms it again.