Have You Seen It?

Country of Origin: Thailand; conceived and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul; production companies/financed by 9/6 Cinema Factory, Firecracker Films, Fuji Photo Film(Thailand), Hubert Bals Fund, and Kick the Machine; starring Duangjai Hiransri, Kome Konghiat Komesiri, and Saisiri Xoomsai.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Mysterious Object at Noon is a bewitching film that begins like any other classically-told fairy tale: “Once upon a time . . .”, but its approach to telling the tale is unlike anything I have seen before.

Set in Thailand, the movie is about a teacher and her young wheelchair-bound student who is unable to see the world as he would like. The story also involves the next door neighbor who is in love with the teacher and the mysterious appearance of a young, physically autonomous boy who may be some kind of an alien.

What distinguishes the movie from classically-told fairy tales is its most unusual, and deeply interesting, approach. Here is a movie that is both a mythical, mystical tale and a documentary. I have never seen a mythical tale told in a documentary fashion before. This was a genuinely new film experience.

The fairy tale scenes are interspersed with scenes of the people telling the story. The story is first narrated by a young woman and continued by people of many different ages, from children to older adults. As each narrator/embellisher contributes to the story, their distinct personalities are displayed for us to see. The overall effect is of getting to know individual people and a culture through the telling of one story.

The film has a very strong sense of place. There are many shots taken while travelling by car, train, boat, and elephant that pick up details of what it is like to live, work, and play in Thailand.

Mysterious Object at Noon does some of my favorite things in film: it was made on a low budget (why should a good movie be expensive to make?), it breaks the rules of traditional filmmaking, it invites the viewer to think and feel differently than before viewing the movie, and it encourages a sense of commonality with people of a different culture.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul said that some view the movie as a fiction on documentary and others view it is a documentary about fiction and that both perspectives are valid. Which one is more valid to you? You decide.