Blissfully Yours in Chicago

With all the attention Tropical Malady has been receiving lately, through the news and film festivals, it's refreshing to see Apichatpong's previous film, Blissfully Yours, get some attention. The 2002 film has opened this weekend at Chicago's Fullerton cinema.

Meanwhile, the merits of Malady vs. Blissfully are being discussed in the Spotlight on Thai Cinema Thread over on Critics' Discussion.

Here's the short review from Sun-Times:

After an auspicious tour through the Cannes, Thessaloniki and Rotterdam film festivals, this 2002 experimental drama from Thailand gets its world theatrical premiere in Chicago. Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who got his masters in filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, begins in a clinic where two women, Roong (Kanokporn Tongaram) and Orn (Jenjira Jansuda), seek treatment for Roong's boyfriend Min (Min Oo), who suffers a skin ailment. They also seek an official health certificate so Min, an undocumented worker from Burma, can find work. He feigns muteness to hide his accent and status from the Thai doctor, whose next patient is a hard-of-hearing oldster quarrelling with his daughter over his hearing aid and the volume on their TV set.

That comic scene is reprised from Weerasethakul's black-and-white feature debut, Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), a meandering quasi-documentary exercise where a non-professional Thai cast tells fragments of a story. The color-drenched Blissfully Yours employs first-time actors in a simple day-in-the-life plot that's all about sensation. Roong skips work at a factory where she paints Disney figurines and goes with Min for an erotic picnic in a secluded tropical forest. Weerasethakul's eccentric touches include placing the opening credits 45 minutes into the film, superimposing white-lined drawings and diary scribblings from the characters, and playing the end credits with no music.

This is languorous fare for those summertime fans of French novelist Marcel Proust who savor reads of sensual detail where little happens except you doze off. Although a distant gunshot is heard at one point and Orn quietly sobs a few scenes later, the alluring action of Blissfully Yours peaks in the play of sunlight passing through tree branches stirred by a gentle breeze. Late afternoon shadows flit over nude Min's back and beaming Roong's upturned face. They don't mind the ants.