Tropical Malady

Theatrical Release Date: 2005 06 29 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 712267250523

Studio: Strand Home Video

Summary: One of Thailand's leading experimental filmmakers, Apichatpong Weerasethakul directed this ambitious examination of fear and desire. Keng (Banlop Lomnoi) is a soldier who has been assigned duty as a forest ranger in the woodlands of the country. While on duty, he meets a young man named Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee); Keng becomes deeply infatuated with Tong, but while Tong is friendly with Keng, he is obviously unwilling to respond to his romantic overtures. As Keng deals with his disappointment, he learns that a number of animals and villagers have fallen victim to a vicious predator who may be a tiger or a shape-shifting shaman. Keng gathers his courage and begins tracking the beast, which alternately resembles a jungle cat and his friend Tong. Sud Pralad ( aka Tropical Malady) was screened in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Avant-garde / Exp

Awards: Film Presented – Toronto International Film Festival Special Jury Prize – Cannes Film Festival In Competition – Cannes Film Festival

Features: Commentary by director and film critic, Chuck Stephens
Story boards and photo gallery
16x9 digital transfer supervised by director
Deleted scenes
Optional English subtitles

Tropical Malady

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 11/01/2005

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 118 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Subtitles: English

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Tropical Malady
1. Opening [10:23]
2. The City [5:29]
3. The Dog [11:21]
4. Close Friends [7:46]
5. The Little Monk [8:44]
6. Day Together [13:45]
7. The Tiger [5:21]
8. Following Tracks [7:50]
9. The Ghost [11:20]
10. Prey & Companion [11:09]
11. The Ghost World [15:40]
12. Credits [4:18]

Josh Ralske

With three beguiling solo features under his belt, Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul has established himself as the master of the slow reveal. Tropical Malady opens with a group of soldiers in the clearing of a forest, happily posing for photos with what is eventually revealed to be a human corpse they've found. While the delightfully oblique Blissfully Yours eventually revealed the motivations behind its characters' odd behavior, it's symptomatic of Tropical Malady's impenetrability that the corpse is never directly referred to again after that opening. The first half of the film involves a flirtatious relationship between Keng (Banglop Lomnoi), a soldier, and Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee), and it has some of the same free-ranging offbeat erotic charm as Blissfully Yours (the groping scene in the movie theater in particular). Weerasethakul continues to use music inventively and fill the screen with gorgeous images. The second half of the film, dealing with (in a very literal way) the Thai myth of a soldier (Lomnoi) hunting a tiger's spirit that takes the form of a naked man (Kaewbuadee), abandons the earlier narrative on all but a symbolic level. Unlike Blissfully Yours, which gradually builds to a startling emotional impact, Tropical Malady goes off the deep end into visually rich but slow-moving fantasy and never really recovers. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Anna Sanders  Producer 
Charles de Meaux  Producer 
Apichatpong Weerasethakul  Director 
Apichatpong Weerasethakul  Screenwriter 
Banlop Lomnoi  Actor 
Sakda Kaewbuadee  Actor 
Sirivech Jareonchon  Actor 
Udom Promma  Actor 
Huai Deesom  Actor 

Country: France,Germany,Italy,Thailand