When I first encountered the work of director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, it was in a university lecture. The lecturer of the class placed a bet; he wagered that none of us in the twenty-strong group of students could pronounce his name properly. He was right. With a name like Apichatpong Weerasethakul, there is a guaranteed certainty that comes from possessing such a tongue twister of a name; once a person pronounces it correctly, they won’t forget the name.
Although it is probably not the first name that comes to a person’s mind when images of Asian cinema are evoked, Apichatpong’s career has evolved outside the parameters and regulations of the Thai film system. From taking this decision, his life’s work has received recognition from prestigious awards bodies such as the Vancouver, Berlin and Cannes film festivals, along with creating short films in partnership with companies like Dior and Louis Vuitton. With his work regularly being acknowledged by an increasingly wider audience of big names, there is a growing feeling of inevitability that the name that was so hard to pronounce between twenty people will become synonymous to the production of Asian films.
Beginnings
Born in Bangkok, Thailand on 16th July 1970 to a family of physicians, Apichatpong originally gained qualifications to be an architect from a Taiwanese university. In 1997, he attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where other film luminaries such as Hong Sang-Soo, Orson Welles and Walt Disney have studied. Two years later, he set up his collective/production company called Kick The Machine, so people like Suchada Sirithanawuddhi and Sompot Chidgasornpongse, his assistant directors, could work outside the stringent measures of the Taiwanese film industry and the levels of censorship.
His first feature length film, Dokfa nai meuman (Mysterious Object at Noon) from 2000 details several unconnected lives across Thailand; the Kick The Machine website describes it as “part fiction, part documentary, and part pseudodocumentary... It was shot without a conventional script and relies on the subjects being filmed... The film emphasizes a documentary approach that presents people with different professions rather than looking for a perfect and
unbroken narrative.”
This unconventional example of film, not only in its practical construction but in its aesthetics, was warmly received by reviewers and boards of judges from all across the globe, winning the special mention prize at the Vancouver International FF and the Grand Prix, and the Jeonju International FF in Korea.
Romance... and Exploitation
Between 2002 and 2004, Apichatpong directed two films exploring different themes of love and relationships with very contrasting results and reception by their wider public. The two films also set precedents for Apichatpong’s directorial style and cinematic trademark stamps.
The first of these two films, Sud Sanaeha (Blissfully Yours), from 2002, details two stories of partnerships at different stages in their lifespan, loosely connected by their locale and the professions of the people in the relationships. The second film, Sud Pralad (Tropical Malady), from 2004, tells the story of a homosexual relationship between a young soldier and a farm boy in the town that the solider is assigned to on a mission. A second story in Sud Pralad portrays the relationship between a young soldier lost in a forest and the spirit of a shaman.
Both Sud Pralad and Sud Sanaeha possess hallmarks of Apichatpong Weerasethakul beginning to develop a style towards a claim as an auteur; the juxtaposed composition of the dual narratives, the title credits of the film occurring midway through the narrative, and using the same actors from the first story as character roles in the second.
Both films received limited appraisal from their audiences because of their obvious nonconformist edit and narrative structures. Sud Sanaeha won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes 2002 and Sun Pralad won the Jury Prize at Cannes 2004. However, Timothy Pfaff writes of Sud Pralad in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Tropical Malady infects you in stages. Few people get Thai independent filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul's greatest film on a single exposure. Like other great art works, it requires - and rewards - repeat contacts.”
Much like the narrative qualities of Dokfa nai meuman, Sud Pralad and Sud Sanaeha possess, as Pfaff describes, the desire to return to the films to watch again. Much like great storytellers, Apichatpong Weerasethakul obviously possesses a natural talent for encapsulating audiences with the simplest stories.
Between these two films of romance came a film of stark contrast. Acting as co-director alongside Michael Shawonasai, they directed The Adventure Of Iron Pussy (Shawonasai) in 2003, a film made as a parody towards the action/cop films made within the Thai film system. Shot on an incredibly low budget and on digital video, the film furthered Apichatpong’s status amongst the disenfranchised clusters of alternative cinema audiences as a cult director working against the traditions of the time.
David vs. Goliath
In 2006, Apichatpong Weerasethakul directed the film that was to launch his name to a larger audience; but unfortunately it was not for the right reasons. Following the trademark points from previous productions, Apichatpong Weerasethakul released Sang Sattawat (Syndromes Of A Century) in 2006, a film made in tribute to his parents; the first half of the film set in a rural hospital and the second half set in a medical centre in Bangkok.
The film faced a frosty reception from the Taiwanese censorship board over some of the scenes portraying doctors and monks behaving out of character to what is expected within Taiwanese culture. Although seemingly innocuous in western culture, the scenes of monks playing with a remote control spaceship and a doctor kissing his girlfriend at work were flagged by the then active Thai Film Act of 1930 that Weerasethakul himself describes as “a vague statute that forbids the promotion of bad morals. In practice, that means films dealing with sex, religion and politics are taboo.”
In his refusal to edit the film to the rules of the censorship board, Apichatpong Weerasethakul pulled the film from general release and emailed the Bangkok post, as Kong Rithdee (Bangkok Express) re-tells: “I, as a filmmaker, treat my works as I do my own sons or daughters... I don't care if people are fond of them or despise them... If these offspring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reason, let them be free. There is no reason to mutilate them in fear of the system. Otherwise there is no reason for one to continue making art.”
Eventually, Sang Sattawat was released for a short time in Thailand in a censored form. However, in a mark of protest, the scenes in question that were censored were purposely replaced with black filler, so audiences were aware of the edit.
Despite all of its problems and controversy that faced it, Sang Sattawat’s world premiere was at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, and also showed at festivals in New York, Toronto and Melbourne.
His greatest reward
After all the controversies and opposition from governmental bodies and critics, Apichatpong Weerasethakul released Loong Boonmee raleuk Chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) in 2010. The film focuses around the eponymous character on his death-bed, and recounting his lives with people in various contorted forms. The film premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and against films such as the hugely popular film Another Year (Leigh, 2010) won the highly coveted Palme D’Or. The film also was listed for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category but didn’t make the shortlist.
Throughout his career, it is clear to see from the narrative and aesthetic compositions that Apichatpong Weerasethakul has always aimed to create against convention. An artist in his own right, he has slowly garnered a collective of likeminded people, an audience from all over the world that shares a love and craving for alternative cinema. He has won many prestigious awards, presented to him by revered people in the film industry. TJB
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