Tropical Malady

Tropical Malady (สัตว์ประหลาด RTGS: Satpralat; lit. "monster") is a 2004 Thai romantic psychological drama art film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film has a bifurcated structure; it is separated into two segments – the first is a romance between two men, and the second a mysterious tale about a soldier lost in the woods, bedeviled by the spirit of a shaman.
It won the Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, and was the first Thai film to be in the main competition at Cannes. It is also the first Thai film to win a prize at one of the "Big Three" film festivals.
In 2022, Tropical Malady was ranked the 62nd greatest film of all time in the Sight & Sound directors' poll and 95th in their critics' poll. In 2016, it was ranked the 6th greatest LGBT film of all time in the British Film Institute poll.
Plot
First Narrative
Keng (Banlop Lomnoi) is a soldier assigned to a post in a small city in rural Thailand. The troop's main duty is to investigate the mysterious slaying of cattle at local farms. While in the field one day, Keng briefly meets a villager named Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee). Later, Keng sees Tong riding in a truck, they talk some more, and a romantic friendship soon develops between them.
Keng helps Tong with his job at an ice factory. One night while driving an ice delivery truck, they find a sick dog on the side of the road. They bring it to a veterinarian, but learn that it has cancer. In turn, Tong signs a form to allow it to undergo chemotherapy. Later, the two of them go to a movie theater.
While sitting together the next day, they're approached by an older woman who tells a story on how two poor farmers lost an opportunity to become rich. In the story, a young monk instructed for them to collect rocks from a nearby pond. After doing so, the rocks turned to silver and gold. When they greedily went back for more though, the silver and gold bars they had previously obtained turned into frogs. Keng, Tong, and the older woman spend the rest of the afternoon together, walking through a cave and meeting the woman's friends.
One night, Keng and Tong ride around the city on a motorcycle. While stopped on the side of the road, they share a brief romantic moment, only for Tong to abruptly wander off into the dark. Keng and his troops leave the village the next day. Some time later, Keng overhears some people saying a monster keeps killing their cattle.
Second Narrative
A soldier (Lomnoi) is sent alone into the woods to kill the spirit of a tiger shaman (Kaewbuadee). He follows its pawprints and waits by a tree once it gets dark. When he wakes up the next morning, he finds himself face to face with the shaman in human form. He chases and fights it, but is knocked unconscious and pushed down a steep slope.
When he wakes up, he still has his gun, but his radio and backpack are destroyed. A monkey tells the soldier he needs to kill the shaman; otherwise, the soldier will be devoured and will enter the shaman's ghost world. When it gets dark again, the soldier hears a sound in the distance and fires his gun in that direction, only to discover he killed a cow. The cow's spirit then rises from its body and walks towards a glowing tree. As the soldier walks away, the shaman (now in the form of a tiger) follows him.
The soldier loses his gun and begins walking on his hands and knees until he comes across the tiger shaman in a tree. After staring at each other for a while, the soldier says "I give you my spirit, my flesh, and my memories" as a graphical image of the tiger shaman absorbing him is shown. The soldier continues looking up at the tiger shaman as the wind picks up.
Cast
Banlop Lomnoi as Keng
Sakda Kaewbuadee as Tong
Huai Dessom
Sirivech Jareonchon
Udom Promma
Release
In Thailand, the film screened for just 10 days at the Siam Theatre. The film was once available for streaming in North America through The Criterion Channel. Since 2020, the film has been removed from Criterion's lineup.
As of 2021, the film's distribution and sales rights in Thailand is currently owned by GDH 559 as a result of ownership of the GMM Pictures' catalog along with GTH titles as well. However it remains unclear if the director's own production company, Kick The Machine retained other rights.
Reception
At the press screening at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, several audience members left before the film was over and some of those who stayed until the end booed it. The film received generally poor reviews from such industry journals as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, but then won the Jury Prize from the jury, headed by Quentin Tarantino. Deborah Young of Variety stated in May 2004, it had a "weakly structured story" and "its loosely connected scenes will sorely try the patience of most viewers". Manohla Dargis from The New York Times in Oct 2004 noted it was "unabashedly strange" and this is a "young filmmaker pushing at the limits of cinematic narrative with grace and a certain amount of puckish willfulness". Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian stated "masterpiece, cult classic or just barking mad?", it "makes me want to burst out laughing at its sheer audacity, its eccentricity, its unashamed aspiration to poetry" and it is "sumptuous and scary, and a brilliant adventure in structure and style". S. F. Said from The Telegraph in 2005 noted it was "weird yet utterly beguiling" and "something from another world".
The film has generally been met with favorable reviews since then. As per the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10 out of 10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Tropical Malady forsakes straight narrative lines and easy answers in favor of an utterly unique drama that leaves a lingering, dreamlike impact". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, with 88% positive reviews based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine ranked Tropical Malady the third best film of 2005. As of 2023, the aggregation site They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? found the film to be the sixth most acclaimed cinematic work of the 21st century. In 2016, the movie ranked 52nd on an international critics' poll of the greatest films since 2000 by the BBC. In 2019, The Guardian ranked Tropical Malady 84th in its 100 Best Films of the 21st Century list.
It is currently registered as one of Thailand's national heritage films by the Thai Film Archive on its eight annual listing in 2018.
Awards
2004 Cannes Film Festival - Jury Prize
2004 São Paulo International Film Festival - Critics Award
2005 Indianapolis International Film Festival - Special Jury Prize for Directing
See also
List of Thai films
Nudity in film (East Asian cinema since 1929)
References
External links
Official site at Kick the Machine
Tropical Malady at the Thai Film Database
2004 films
2004 drama films
2004 fantasy films
Thai avant-garde and experimental films
Thai speculative fiction films
LGBT-related drama films
Thai LGBT-related films
Thai-language films
Films directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Romantic fantasy films
2000s psychological drama films
Films set in Thailand
Thai national heritage films
2004 LGBT-related films