Story of movie Tropical Malady :
Tropical Malady (RTGS: Satpralat; lit. "monster") is a 2004 Thai romantic psychological drama film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film has a bifurcated structure; it is separated into two segments – the first is a romance between two men, and the second a mysterious tale about a soldier lost in the woods, bedeviled by the spirit of a shaman.
| Tropical Malady | |
|---|---|
The Thai film poster | |
| Directed by | Apichatpong Weerasethakul |
| Produced by | Charles de Meaux Axel Moebius |
| Written by | Apichatpong Weerasethakul |
| Starring | Sakda Kaewbuadee Banlop Lomnoi Sirivech Jareonchon Udom Promma Huai Deesom |
| Cinematography | Jarin Pengpanitch Vichit Tanapanitch Jean-Louis Vialard |
| Edited by | Lee Chatametikool Jacopo Quadrie |
| Distributed by | TIFA Kick the Machine Anna Sanders Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 125 minutes |
| Country | Thailand |
| Language | Thai |
It won the Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, and was the first Thai film to be in the main competition at Cannes. It is also the first Thai film to win a prize at one of the "Big Three" film festivals.
Screenplay
Keng (played by Banlop Lomnoi), is a soldier assigned to a post in a small city in rural Thailand. The troops' main duties, it seems, is to investigate the mysterious slaying of cattle at local farms. While in the field one day, Keng meets Tong (played by Sakda Kaewbuadee). Later, Keng sees Tong riding in a truck in town. The two men have made a connection and embark on a romance, taking trips in the countryside.
Then one night, the country boy wanders off into the dark. The film's narrative abruptly shifts to a different story, about a soldier (played by Lomnoi again) sent alone into the woods to find a lost villager. In the woods, the soldier encounters the spirit of a tiger shaman (played by Kaewbuadee again), who taunts and bedevils the soldier, causing him to run through the woods and become lost and isolated himself.
In Thailand, the film screened for just 10 days at the Siam Theatre.
At the press screening at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, several audience members left before the film was over and some of those who stayed until the end booed it. The film received generally poor reviews from such industry journals as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, but then won the Jury Prize from the jury headed by Quentin Tarantino.
The film been generally met with favorable reviews since then. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77%, based on 44 reviews, and an average rating of 7.1/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine ranked Tropical Malady the third best film of 2005; the aggregation site They Shoot Pictures, Don't They has also found the film to be the ninth most acclaimed cinematic work of the 21st century and in 2016 the work ranked 52nd on an international critics' poll of the greatest films since 2000.
- 2004 Cannes Film Festival - Jury Prize
- 2004 São Paulo International Film Festival - Critics Award
- 2005 Indianapolis International Film Festival - Special Jury Prize for Directing
- List of Thai films
- Nudity in film (East Asian cinema since 1929)
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