Quote:
When it comes to impenetrable arthouse fare, Thai indie auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul is widely regarded as something of a master. Two years ago, he arrived in London triumphantly with his Palme d’Or for the majestic Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) and has returned this year with the not-quite-feature-length oddity, Mekong Hotel (2012), which rightly features in the LFF’s ‘Experimenta’ stream. Weerasethakul’s latest lingers instead on a series of moments all taking place around the titular hostelry sat on the bank of the enormous river which separates Thailand from Laos.

As an acoustic guitar plays a continuous refrain, a young couple seem to meet for the first time before the supernatural takes a hold of proceedings. After their initial introduction as to the cause of a dog’s death, it becomes apparent that the hotel is in fact home to ghosts. Mekong Hotel does suffer from a slightly disjointed opening, in which we seem to see Weerasethakul himself auditioning the guitarist who provides the film’s soundtrack. However, it quickly settles into the filmmaker’s trademark languorous rhythm as we hear ruminations on rebirth and on the pain of death, interspersed with some startling moments in which the hungry ghosts feed and nice injections of humour.

The film touches, once again, on the themes that have preoccupied the director throughout his previous films; death, spirits, reincarnation, memory, tradition. Best enjoyed by just allowing the directors images and atmosphere wash over you, Mekong Hotel lacks any dramatic through line though scenes appearing isolated are surprisingly moving at times. It does, somehow, become ultimately gripping where the director has a profound knack of mesmerising with the most mundane things when he wants to. A final shot of the river flowing past and some youths jet-skiing in the distance lasts for minutes on end without ever feeling too long.

This is, however, a bit of self indulgence from Weerasethakul; at least when taken as a film in its own right. It does not have the scale, scope or wonder of his utterly sublime feature output and is perhaps an easier piece to understand when familiar with his previous work and style. It might be that when viewed as part of the entire Mekong Project will feel less like a trifle. As it is, the film is probably one for fans to enjoy and enjoy it they undoubtedly will; anything for a chance to spend an hour with Weerasethakul.

Mekong.Hotel.2012.SUBBED.1080p.BluRay.x264-DEPTH.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	59 min 10 s
Size: 	4.37 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	9 048 kb/s
BPP: 	0.182
Audio
#1:  	Thai 5.1ch DTS @ 1 509 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/763CD60AA4AE8D4/Mekong.Hotel.2012.SUBBED.1080p.BluRay.x264-DEPTH.mkv

Language(s):Thai
Subtitles:English

The post Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Mekong Hotel (2012) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

SYNOPSIS
Since she appeared in my film in 2009, Jenjira Pongpas has changed her name. Like many Thais, she is convinced that the new name will bring her good luck. So Jenjira has become Nach, which means water. Not long after, she was drifting online and encountered a retired soldier, Frank, from Cuba, New Mexico, USA. A few months later they got married and she has officially become Mrs. Nach Widner.

The newlyweds found a house near the Mekong River where Nach had grown up. She spends most of her day crocheting baby socks for sale, while he enjoys gardening and watching television (sometimes without the sound because most of the programs are in Thai).

Cactus River is a diary of the time I visited the couple—of the various temperaments of the water and the wind. The flow of the two rivers—Nach and the Mekong, activates my memories of the place where I shot several films. Over many years, this woman whose name was once Jenjira has introduced me to this river, her life, its history, and to her belief about its imminent future. She is certain that soon there will be no water in the river due to the upstream constructions of dams in China and Laos. I noticed too, that Jenjira was no more. –Apichatpong Weerasethakul

474MB | 10mn 7s | 1920×1440 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/AC32842E5AA5C20/Cactus_River_(Khong_Lang_Nam).mkv

Language:None
Subtitles:None

The post Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Cactus River (2012) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Thai master Apichatpong Weerasethakul and frequent collaborator Jenjira Pongpas Widner present a choreographed dance of scrolls and a portrait of feverish slumber.

A woman lies awake at night. Nearby, a set of theatre backdrops unspools itself, unveiling two alternate landscapes. Upon the woman’s blue sheet, a flicker of light reflects and illuminates her realm of insomnia.

384MB | 12 min 11 s | 1920×1080 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/E1F7D98A419158F/Blue.2018.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.x264-Art.mkv

Language(s):Thai
Subtitles:None

The post Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Blue (2018) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
The unconscious dream state that connects each of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films begins in his latest when frequent collaborator, Jenjira Pongpas (Her characters’ names devolving film to film from ‘Pa Jane’, ‘Jen’ and now simply ‘Je’), stumbles into the frame with her ft. high platform sandal keeping her stumpy left leg in proportion with her right. This familiar image is the proverbial blanket Weerasethakul pulls over his audience, tucking the viewers into his familiar world, allowing for a communal drift into his drowsy landscapes. It’s only a testament to Weesrasethakul’sself awareness as a filmmaker that he has a narcoleptic soldier drop into a lethargic mess as we see him glance upon a movie screen, reflecting how he makes his films onto the characters who inhabit them. This scene, among others, provides a self reflexive exploration of Weerasethakul’s oeuvre, adding to a film that exudes more passion, thoughtfulness and complexity than any of his other major works.

The city of Khon Kaen is a suitable place for the sleepy, especially the mysteriously narcoleptic soldiers inhabiting a simplistic hospital ward scattered with children’s drawings and coated with chipped paint. Volunteer nurses and doctors tend to these consciously troubled men, whose lives are gazed upon by the resident medium and more specifically Je, who becomes fascinated with the past lives of narcoleptic Itt. His diary entries scrawled with poetic descriptives and inadvertent greetings to those reading it, much is left to the imagination in chronicling the life of Itt, often causing Je to fall prey to bouts of desire tinged unconsciousness.

https://nitro.download/view/3252FD76FA4B809/Apichatpong_Weerasethakul_-_(2015)_Cemetery_of_Splendour.mkv

Language(s):English, Thai
Subtitles:English

The post Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Rak ti Khon Kaen aka Cemetery of Splendor (2015) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

“Shifting between fact and fiction in a hotel situated along the Mekong River, a filmmaker rehearses a movie expressing the bonds between a vampire-like mother and daughter… “….IMDB

https://nitro.download/view/96530865D609A6D/Mekong_Hotel.mkv
http://www.nitroflare.com/view/ACC06550B772905/Mekong_Hotel.eng.srt
http://www.nitroflare.com/view/6910FBA6D738855/Mekong.Hotel.ita.srt

Language:Thai
Subtitles: French hardcoded,English,Italian

The post Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Mekong Hotel (2012) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Though often difficult to decipher, the quiet pace and gentle touch of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s newest film, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, makes for a spiritual and meditative film experience like no other. Uncle Boonmee is ill and his sister-in-law and her son visit as he becomes habituated to the new regiment meant to extend his foreshortened life. Moving closer to death, the barrier between the world of the spirits and that of the living dissolves, and Boonmee is met with his dead wife, his lost son, and of course, his past lives.

Long takes of seemingly mundane daily activities extend what will eventually be forgotten moments, immortalizing their detail and intricacy, while allowing their deliberate pacing to form a powerfully iconoclastic atmosphere. Built on such moments, the audience is forced to reflect on the minute changes in the mise-en-scene, which allows for moments of the supernatural to unfold with patient surrealism. Changes are often so subtle that they are only apparent when fully revealed; the audience can’t help marveling at how such drastic changes and apparitions happened without much notice.

Questions of the unknown seems to be at the heart of this film, especially the search for greater truth. Appropriately cryptic, fears and desires transform into a hyper-emotion. The excitement of discovery as well as the fear of an end blend into one. As Boonmee recalls past lives (and maybe even future ones), his identity becomes somehow more certain. We are not necessarily more privy to his mortal experience, but as his fragmented existence comes together he becomes more serene, and the audience does as well. Finding the meaning of life is futile, but finding peace in the journey is pivotal.

2.37GB | 1h 48m | 1024×560 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/C5619481E5E0892/Apichatpong_Weerasethakul_-_(2010)_Uncle_Boonmee_Who_Can_Recall_His_Past_Lives.mkv

Language:Thai,French
Subtitles:English

The post Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Loong Boonmee raleuk chat AKA Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) first appeared on Cinema of the World.