X
- 2011
- Not Rated
- Strand Releasing
- 1 h 54 m
- 2011
- Not Rated
- Strand Releasing
- 1 h 54 m
Summary Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle wi...
Directed By: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Written By: Phra Sripariyattiweti, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
- 2011
- Not Rated
- Strand Releasing
- 1 h 54 m
- 2011
- Not Rated
- Strand Releasing
- 1 h 54 m
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
7.1
Where to Watch
Summary Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle wi...
Directed By: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Written By: Phra Sripariyattiweti, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
87
90% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
10% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
87
90% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
10% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
A moving, gently reassuring tale that softens the boundaries between humanity and nature, life and the afterlife.
If anything, Joe's sense of dream logic is more naturalistic than Lynch's, more grounded in the knowable world - as much, that is, as we can know about nature - and the luminous Uncle Boonmee is no exception.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 63 User Ratings
7.1
67% Positive
42 Ratings
42 Ratings
19% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
14% Negative
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 63 User Ratings
7.1
67% Positive
42 Ratings
42 Ratings
19% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
14% Negative
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
Probably the weirdest film I've ever watched but it is because of this unusual weirdness that constructs the most unique and remarkable movie in Thai film's industry. it also shows downfall of Thai morality- how temptations were seen as ordinary compensation. How humans are now living in 2 totally different world - the world of their own selves and the world that has been built by society which highly provokes the sense of importance of self-notification, nothing is true unless you've experienced with it.
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These other users don't know what they're talking about. This movie is a cinematic marvel. Every scene feels natural even though many of them are surreal, and it leaves you with a great feeling. It's beautiful.
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You don't have to believe in the transmigration of souls to fall languorously in love with the Thai film that won the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival.
A work of unostentatious beauty and uncloying sweetness, at once sophisticated and artless, mysterious and matter-of-fact, cosmic and humble, it asks only a measure of Boonmeevian acceptance: The movie doesn't mean anything-it simply is.
As Joe blurs the line between reality and the supernatural, his haunting and hypnotic film exerts a hold you don't want to break. It's a beauty.
If you can weather some slow patches (and there are plenty), this boldly original, oddly affecting meditation on the afterlife will reward you with moments of profundity that will linger in your consciousness (or subconsciousness) for a lifetime (or lifetimes).
I'm more than ready to welcome a new style and a new metaphysic, but I still respond with skepticism and exasperation to Weerasethakul's work, which is sensuous and ruminative but also flat, almost affectless. [28 March 2011, p. 116]
This film gnawed away at my mind for weeks after viewing. I'm a big fan of surrealist film, but when I watched this brilliant feature by "Joe", haha, I was a left wanting more. But then the next morning I woke up and began thinking about it. And I couldn't stop. It's like I needed to sleep on it. I highly recommend this for surrealist fans who don't mind taking their time in digesting it and pondering metaphors etc... But if you're the type of filmgoer that wants everything laid out explained and resolved you are DEFINITELY knocking on the wrong door with this one. As a fan of surreal cinema I gave it a 9. But people who don't like surrealist cinema might likely give it a very low score, as it is a bit of a demanding challenge. Brilliant stuff though, and gorgeously filmed with a silence that slathers the whole thing in peaceful mystery. Very quaintly and candidly filmed with humorous little treats to make you laugh while you're on a wild head-trip on the themes of what comes after death, grief, family, and more. It hits a lot of spots! Fantastic stuff.
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I understand asian culture and how they relate to death and ghosts in a whole other way. However, I just can't get pass this simple fact. How can your dead daughter appear next to you and you not be shocked and then your dead son turn into a monkey and you act as if that isn't a big deal either. What the hell is going on in asia!!!
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My favorite part of this movie came when I needed to go to the bathroom during a sequence when the main characters are walking through a forest. Music is playing, they are walking through the forest saying nothing, and I thought, "This movie is really slow and that diet coke has worked it's way to my bladder - time to go." So I went to the bathroom, checked my e-mail, listened to my phone messages, then walked back in to the theatre. They were still walking. I'm not kidding. Now, I'm a fan of Buddhism, I've been to **** this movie bored me to pieces. It has ten minutes of interesting spiritual/conceptual stuff, stuck in a loooong, sloooow, movie. Pretentious people will love this movie, because it will make them feel smart for liking it. Smart people will rent the dvd and watch it at ten times speed.
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Although, this isn't the reason I had a problem with it, this movie is very slow moving, and very artsy. There are people who hate movies like this no matter what, and there are people who love movies like this no matter what. I think the former is generally more mindful, and able to think for themselves. For me personally, like with any type of movie, a slow moving artistic movie has to be well made, and be able to achieve what it is intending to accomplish more me to like it. This was not that movie. The premise basically gives you every piece of philosophical insight this movie has to offer. A man is dying, and looks back on his past lives. That's it. It doesn't go anywhere from there. It just shows what happens in this guy's past lives, without any sort of insight into this character's mind, and what he's going through, or any sort of commentary on life and death, which you might have expected from the premise. Usually, if a movie is slow moving, it is to provoke emotion, not to make a two hour movie out of 30 minutes worth of script.
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This movie is one of the worst I have ever seen, and we generally like art films. It is so poorly done it would get a failing grade as a junior high school video project (and they'd have to delete the fish... don;t ask, it;s boring too). In retrospect I wish I had made at least one trip to the restroom, as another reviewer said they wisely did, to relieve the boredom. For me the highlight of the movie (weak though it was) was the ridiculous black shag rug costumes (which zipped up the front) with ridiculous glow-in-the-dark red eyes that the "monkey ghosts" wore. A truly unrelieved snoozer, without a scrap of interest or socially redeeming merit to be had. Save you time and your money!
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Production Company
Kick the Machine,
Illuminations Films,
Anna Sanders Films,
The Match Factory,
Geißendörfer Film- und Fernsehproduktion (GFF),
Eddie Saeta S.A.,
Fonds Sud Cinéma,
Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication,
Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Développement International,
World Cinema Fund,
Hubert Bals Fund,
Ministry of Culture, Thailand,
Office of the Contemporary Art and Culture (OCAC),
ZDF/Arte,
Haus der Kunst,
Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT),
Animate Projects Limited,
Louverture Films
Release Date Mar 4, 2011
Duration 1 h 54 m
Rating Not Rated
Awards
International Cinephile Society Awards
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Thailand National Film Association Awards
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
