Arguments and Issues in the Film "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives"

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Film Review: Cinematic Introspection
Human beings have a strong relationship with others and their natural surroundings. Love seems to be the pivotal aspect that establishes and maintains this strong relationship. The film “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” by Apichatpong Weerasethakul explores this relationship as one of the main themes of cinema. The film particularly revolves around the familial love expressed by the family members of the main protagonist, Boonmee. The film’s plot follows the last moments of Boonmee at his Isan estate as he battles terminal kidney disease (Weerasethakul). Familial love is expressed through the actions of Boonmee’s family members, such as his sister-in-law Jen and nephew Tong who are alive, and the protagonist’s wife Huay and Boonsong, who have returned in an incarnated form (Weerasethakul). The film director, Weerasethakul, does a great work of exploring this and other thematic expressions in the cinema using the slow cinema style explores in the text “Rethinking Transcendental Style” by Paul Schrader.
The film’s diegesis is developed around the notion of the connection between humans and their surroundings. As implied above, love is pivotal to the relationships explored in the cinema. When Boonmee is in his last movement in the cave, he says, “This cave is like a womb, isn’t it. I was born here. I don’t know if I was human, man, or woman” (Weerasethakul). This quote shows the great connection the main protagonist has with his surroundings. Moreover, Boonmee’s son Boosong returns in the form of a monkey ghost. While the characters present during his first screen appearance are startled, they quickly adjust their attitude towards him. This implies a positive relationship between humans and animals, as explored in the film’s diegesis. In the context of Schrader’s initial analytic notion of transcendental style, this relationship between humans and the environment is questionable, considering the author senses disunity between the two (Schrader 3). From the viewer’s point of view, this might be the sense of unease the viewer needs to resolve to get in line with the parallel reality explored in the film.
One of the social issues brought into focus in the film is the Buddhist faith...