Director Suwichakornpong and editor Chatametikool declare war against time…
Albert Einstein said you hadn’t really understood something until you were able to explain it to your grandmother, same for ambitious film directors whose big ideas need the exact refined abilities to fulfill the need to tell complex texts with the proper clear images. One of the best examples among contemporary films surely is Mundane History, Anocha Suwichakornpong’s debut after a string of successful short films such as the strikingly beautiful Graceland.
With no more than 80 minutes she’s included slices of Thai culture, the eternal conflict between classes and the problem of existence through both a spiritual and scientific vocabulary. The plot used to compress these terms is surprisingly simple: a tragic accident has changed a rich family’s life, Ake, they’re only son (Phakpoom Surapongsanuruk), is paralyzed from the waist down, forced to rely on a nurse, Pun (Arkaney Cherkam), for the rest of his time.
We witness the first phases of his calvary; realizing his existence won’t ever be the same he has ever imagined, more or less like the viewer didn’t expect a mixed narrative. Mundane History doesn’t start from the beginning, Suwichakornpong has an ethereal style, away from everything that could resemble an explanation: who actually is Ake? What was his relationship with his silent father before the accident? How it happened? Death was behind the door if plot accuracy was sought.
Well played characters by their actors, even if no striking performance are there to be remembered, but no more than masks, ideal men and women representing things bigger than themselves. Few dialogues write down those lines of background needed, we know Pun’s and Ake’s dreams, each one crashed when met reality, each one facing it differently: one paralyzed by his physical condition, the other by his economic condition. Despite the point of view, everything is fixed.
Impossible not to think of Apicahtpong Weerasethakul’s Syndromes and a Century or Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s more introspective works such as Last Life in the Universe, Ploy or Invisible Waves, Suwichakornpong goes straight inside the circle of the most self-reflexive side of Thai cinema and culture. High class and the poor, the dry politeness breathing downstairs and the pointless masturbation of those upstairs, mere mannequins in need of their despised servants.
Thailand in Mundane History is suffering a terminal disease, on the verge of death or even worse, condemned to be itself for a long long time, dying and then being born again, living the cycle of a star, from the likes of our Sun to the end of its existence, mutated into a black hole. And then, life again: Mundane History features a mundane moment, one of the most beautiful in our world, the birth of a baby, through a caesarian section. A simile for a repetitive history.
Suwichakornpong could be the next “sensation” from Thailand, time will bring the necessary improvements, for now we can be really happy to have her in the cinematic world, Mundane History is already a complete film, well thought and especially well directed. Of course editing has to be considered, since Lee Chatametikool has worked alongside Weerasethakul for a long time and he himself has debuted later on (Mundane History was released in 2009) with Concrete Clouds. Another promising career.
Chatametikool and Suwichakornpong declare war against time; chronological order has lost its meaning in a spinning world deaf to our sorry battles, using a sophisticated grammar to captivate the viewer, moving back and forth, inhale and exhale, death and rebirth. Mundane History is not perfect, neither a near masterpiece, but it’s an excellent breakthrough in the Seventh Art kingdom. Now we only have to wait for her next film, By the Time It Gets Dark.
Related articles Article continues after
Headshot
Concrete Clouds
Lee Chatametikool interview: “Editing is the last chance for the director to re-write the script”
Tormented 3D aka Rabbit Horror 3D
Pan-Asia Film Festival 2013
Pan-Asia Film Festival 2013 opens…