Uncle Boonmee Who Remembers His Past Lives

[poliphilo]

Uncle Boonmee is dying of kidney failure. He owns a farm in the rural North East of Thailand- among steep, bumpy hills that remind me of the Kentucky "knobs". The scent of his dying draws "spirits and hungry animals" towards him.

We are in a place between here and there, now and then- a permeable space. The ghosts come and go. Uncle Boonmee says his suffering is karma for having killed so many communists in his youth and so many insects on his farm.

A princess makes love to a talking carp.

After his death we return to a world of hotel rooms and karaoke bars. His relatives sit on the bed and watch TV. Or do they go out and have a meal? No matter; either way, it is much less real. 

Comments

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

They showed that film here as part of the Whitehead Film Festival, which means that it must have had some relevance to Process Theology.

I didn't go, and those who did said that it made no sense to them. I wondered if it was because, with their basically Christian lens, they had no frame of reference.

At any rate, it is on my list of films to see. Thank you for reminding me.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It made sense to me- in a dreamy sort of way- but I suppose my outlook these days is more Buddhist than Christian.