Blissfully Yours

Sud sanaeha; Drama, Thailand/ France, 2002; D: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, S: Jenjira Jansuda, Min Oo, Kanokporn Tongaram, Sa-gnad Chaiyapan, Kanitpat Premkij

Thailand. A doctor is examining a man, Min, who suffers from sensitive skin which is peeling off. He is accompanied by two women, Orn i Roong, who speak for him because he is an illegal Burmese immigrant and can't speak Thai properly. Min doesn't get the license for work, but Roong picks him up with her car from work and brings him to a nearby jungle, into the untouched nature. There they enjoy in a picnic, meditation and intercourse. They meet Orn who is with a lover and bath in a river.

"Blissfully Yours" from opulent Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul is an unusual film. Basically, it's a meditative, minimalistic film where there practically is no plot and which is composed from two parts - one, that plays out in the sterile city, and the other one that unfolds in the "liberating" nature deprived from any kind of stress or problems for the protagonists. Weerasethakul's confidence is fascinating - he isn't afraid of long takes that last for 3 minutes and don't show nothing except protagonists just standing in the nature - while the uneventfulness in the film reaches almost epic esoteric/ suggestive proportions, but some parts are simply boring. Some directorial interventions are welcomed - for instance, the opening credits roll some 45 minutes into the film (!), Roong's drawings appear on the screen - but the film still stays an exercise for patience in which the introverted mood is rarely broken by some extroverted scenes, like the one in which the troubled couple has intercourse in the tranquil forest. Simple "Blissfully Yours" is an individual experience: some may regard it as a boring film, while others will perceive it as a masterwork.

Grade:++