I’m not sure if this is an important aspect of Weerasethakul’s films, since theme does seem to have a place of precedence over visuals, but this movie has some of the best night photography I have ever seen. Tropical Malady, shot on what seems like a prosumer video camera, also struck me for the purely visual quality of the image—disregarding shot composition, etc. The pixelated grain of the jungle in that film was such an interesting and beautiful contrast. Uncle Boonmee doesn’t have that same video grain (shot in 16mm), but the photography is really gorgeous. The sequence with the catfish stands out; as well, the descent into the caves, when the camera is handheld and the audio track is dominated by the sound of breathing…really cool stuff.
Thematically, there is quite a lot of continuity between this film and Tropical Malady, right down to a character basically telling the story of the second half of that film. The credits refer to the film as a “primitive project,” and there is obviously quite a lot about rural superstition (or more generously, spirituality). There is a sequence early on when one character makes fun of a Laotian character’s dialect; another sequence where the titular uncle expresses regret for killing so many communists. In the final act, we move from the rural setting back into the urban, and we have another interesting contrast of the spiritual and the modern in the form of the zen monk’s robes, discarded in favour of jeans and Chuck Taylor’s. There’s something going on about (1) the idiocy of rural folk; (2) modernity; (3) photographic media, including photography, an important part of the plot; and TV, which brings a surprising meta-textual quality to the ending of the film.
When I saw Tropical Malady, I had a pretty shallow interpretation that was just about how traditional, folk spirituality is better than modern life, blahblahblah. But there’s a political subtext to this film that is a bit more critical.