Thai with English subtitles

14A-Nudity

Pun, a male nurse, moves into the house of successful businessman Thanin to take care of his crippled son, Ake, who is paralyzed from waist down. Slowly, resentment begins to bubble under the surface. Ake’s frustration with his own injury, coupled with the coldness of his father’s business world, creates a tension that expresses itself in bursts of unconventional music by Malaysian band Furniture and Thai group Photo Sticker Machine. This disconnect implies an angry and punk-like inner life under all the repressed calm.

As pieces of Ake’s life come together under the friendly support of his caretaker, the film comes closer to explaining the accident and mending wounds, all while bursting into an otherworldly perspective of pure poetic inspiration. A blend of daring, stylish cinema that begins as a tranquil family drama and transforms into cosmic, experimental bravado, Anocha Suwichakornpong’s MUNDANE HISTORY deserves a chance for those brave enough to risk it. Coupled with CIFF’s presentation of UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, Asia again asserts itself as the hotbed of acclaimed and unconventional new cinema.

TS