Blissfully Yours (Sud Sanaeha)
, 7 pm
A road movie reminiscent of Jean Renoir’s rueful idyll A Day in the Country, Blissfully Yours is unconscionably happy. Min is an illegal immigrant from Burma who skips work in a factory that makes Flintstones knickknacks. His companions, two Thai women, happily play hooky with him and head to the jungle for a picnic and romance. In a scenic spot, each finds an erotic moment. “I didn’t want to focus on Burmese people’s hardships,” says the director,” but instead on how they can find happiness. I pushed the political element into the background. I wanted to convey the pleasure of life, the precious things of life that we are born for in this world, no matter how difficult it is.” 2002, Thailand, color, 35mm, in Thai with English subtitles, 125 minutes.
With
Mysterious Object at Noon, 9:15 pm
Early on in this hybrid documentary a young woman relates a horrible incident. The off-camera director then asks her a peculiar question: “Now, do you have any other stories to tell us? It can be real or fiction.” This inquiry leads Weerasethakul to traverse Thailand, where a cross section of people pick up the new story and add their own details. Like the “exquisite corpse” exercise in which assorted writers each contribute a sentence, or sometimes a chapter, in order to build a single narrative, the people offer local myths and fables that give viewers a beguiling look at this country. 2000, Thailand, BW, 35mm, in Thai with English subtitles, 83 minutes.
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