Tropical Malady

Winner of a Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's mysterious gay romance features a midway shift from realism to allegory that is so abrupt that it's been known to send film-festival audiences into a state of mass confusion. The shift (which the director has called "a mirror in the center that reflects both ways") results in two separate movies, thematically related by desire: what begins as a coyly tentative romance between charming soldier Keng (Banlop Lomnoi) and shy farm boy Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee) becomes a kind of nocturnal vision quest, derived from a shamanic folk tale and involving enticing encounters (or fever-induced visions?) with a talking baboon, a ghostly cow, and a man—Keng's would-be lover—who shape-shifts into a tiger. Weerasethakul is content to leave some of his mysteries unexplained, and that will frustrate some; regardless, Tropical Malady is a singular experience offering an exquisite taste of sensory cinema. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by the filmmaker and film critic Chuck Stephens, 15 minutes of deleted scenes, storyboard and photo galleries, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a lovely foreign film.] (J. Shannon)