User reviews

Apichatpong Weerasethakul had been on my radar after the elusive critical praise for his earlier work that seem fit only for lists like They Shoot Pictures. He doesn't seem to satisfy general audiences in the same way, despite winning at Cannes for Uncle Boonmee. Ostensibly his most personal film, Cemetery of Splendour seemed like a good start. It was certainly an introduction to his ambiguity which Splendour indulges in at every opportunity. It's very rich with its themes, though you have to go with the flow on its spirituality, belief in past lives and superstition, but those themes don't necessarily feel like they string together. More knowledge on Thai politics, history and culture would certainly help to arrive at a concise interpretation, but it does have enough universalities.

There is, however, a fascinating way it contrasts past and present simultaneously. That's its best ambiguous angle. Each shot can be its own individual thought rather than giving myself headaches trying to piece it together. Weerasethakul at least has a wonderful sense of poetic composition and juxtaposition, his choice of a rainbow light aiding him in many senses. But besides the calm and often profound nature of the film, what makes it strike a nerve is the deeply resonating performance from his lead Jenjira Pongpas. She balances humour with empathetic emotion with nuanced ease and anchors the film in her relateability despite her unique situation with her tumurous leg. Cemetery certainly gives a lot to chew on.

8/10

Cemetery of Splendour is a serene and mystical meditation on spiritual connection and dreaming. But Weerasethakul's first feature since 'Uncle Boonmee' will not be for everyone - it will either send you into deep spiritual contemplation, or send you to sleep.

The setting is a makeshift hospice in Thailand for soldiers with Narcalepsy; a sleeping condition in which patients are almost always asleep. Jen, a middle-aged woman with a physical impairment, is assigned to look after one of the soldiers as a volunteer. She rubs cream into his muscles, and takes him out for meals when he is awake. But beneath the ebb and flow of life at the hospice, there are other spiritual forces at play; talk of an ancient cemetery, and the spirits of kings and goddesses.

The film is shot beautifully. The camera stays fixed in wide angle - each scene being a window through which the characters enter and connect, reminiscent of the work of Bela Tarr. I think the camera moved twice the entire film.

Cemetery of Splendour is most definitely a slow burner. I'd go as far as to say that it doesn't really reach any heights of dramatic or narrative tension. The film is much more of an experiential, moody piece that lingers and floats like light sleep. I didn't quite understand it, and I almost fell asleep, but if the film is exploring Narcolepsy, then I think that's the point...

Every moment of this film is enjoyable. For much of the movie, it struck me as no more or less than a solid example of the cinema of auteur Arichitapong Weerasthakul. He is, perhaps, the most sincerely and successfully magical-realist artist that cinema has known. The social rhythms seem utterly naturalistic, even when the main character, an old, recently handicapped hospital worker, is having a pleasant chat with ancient deities. As with early Peter Weir, Weerasthakul's natural landscapes are utterly, well, natural yet they seem to suggest a haunting, an otherworldly force that's face is the world, one which may or may not be benevolent. History, for Weerasthakul, is the haunting of the present and future by past lives and past worlds, spectral- beings that traverse and are traversed by the present.

During Cemetery's last scenes I came to think this may be Weerasthakul's most fully realized work. The penultimate shot is extraordinary. The main character stares out at a central square of the village where the film has taken place, which the current government is digging up, presumably to make way for some "modern convenience". Children play over the new ruins like spirits of the future levitating over a present fading into the past. Our lives, our worlds, can only exist atop the ruins and amid the ghosts of the past. Destruction is therefore creation. But that doesn't make destruction, perhaps especially in its contemporary, mechanized form, any less terrifying.

Without having known before, 20 minutes into the film I guessed that it was from the same director of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Weirdly, I didn't take to that film much. I appreciated it greatly, and I did get more out of it on my second viewing of it, but it still left me feeling very distant. I found this much more fixating and engrossing, even if the pace does get to me at times. It's amazingly directed and I think that carries it a long way, but it also benefited from being more grounded on a simple thematic level than Boonmee. Not for everyone, but definitely a film to watch out for. Not recommended for everyone, just for those who know exactly what they're getting into.

When this film ended, I wasn't sure if I had watched it or slept through most of it. Either way, somewhat pleasant...

A young woman sings to her lover in public, ancient kings use the energy of sleeping soldiers to fight battles and figurine princesses come to life and discuss things like skin-tone and how much they appreciate offerings. Such characters and scenes are not brought about through computer animation, elaborate costumes or thrilling action sequences, but mundane and leisurely compositions.

The film follows Jen and Keng, local women who voluntarily visit and help care for soldiers in a remote and tiny hospital. The soldiers seem to be under the sway of a spell or perhaps dreams and thoughts of their own making. Keng is a psychic and has the ability to communicate to the soldiers in their sleep. The whole film is something of a meandering daydream or series of magic spells, which is both good and bad. It is cerebral, loosely organized and full of depth. It is a kaleidoscope of Thai culture, lawn ornaments, colored lights, dreams and figures from the past, present and future, among other things. According to the TIFF catalog the film blends "neuroscience, Khmer animism, meditations on war and death, and the quotidian details of everyday life in a small village." They mention this, of course, just in case you caught too much Khmer animism and neuroscience in previous films. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

A truly meditative experience sure to leave you helplessly vulnerable into succumbing to eternal slumber as the soldiers in this film. That's a blessing and a curse for Cemetery of Splendor. But visually, this is a work of art. The colors light up the screen majestically. Everyone and everything in this film seems to be shifting in and out of a deep sleep. This is cinema in a catatonic state.

Cemetery of Splendour is a magical realism tale, that doesn't ask or answer any questions, but lets the viewer ask them for himself while watching.

It is slow paced and leaves a lot to imagination, so you will have to actively watch it, instead of just letting it play in the background.

It was initially the synopsis of the movie that made me give "Cemetery of Splendor" (aka "Rak ti Khon Kaen") a chance and sat down to watch it, plus the fact that it is a Thai movie - as I do enjoy Asian cinema quite a lot.

"Cemetery of Splendor" is a rather slow paced movie, and there is very little happening, so it becomes a rather tiresome affair to keep focus on the movie and it is a struggle to have the interest maintained on the storyline. And running at two hours, then your will to continue will be challenged to its limits. I found myself checking the time stamp of the progress of the movie frequently because it felt like an eternity of getting nowhere in the movie. I managed to get almost halfway through the movie before I gave up out of complete and utter hopelessness and boredom.

The characters in the movie seemed fairly one-dimensional and were lacking personalities and outstanding traits. They could essentially have been portrayed by one and the same actor, because it was hard to differentiate the individual characters. The audience can't really connect with the characters in the movie as they are essentially faceless and one-dimensional, so you have no bond or association to the characters. And it didn't help that most of the dialogue throughout the movie was delivered with a lack of convicting and impact. It became a bit too much when you saw a guy sitting in the bush and actually defecating. Sure, I know that this is how it is done in certain parts of rural Thailand, but come on, this was a scene that was not necessary to show on the screen, and it served absolutely no purpose for the story.

I will say that the actors and actresses in the movie were doing good enough jobs with their roles and characters, despite being so hindered by a lack of thorough script and storyline.

The pacing of the movie was unfathomably slow, as I stated earlier, and prolonged shots of people sleeping, rural landscapes with nothing happening, random people exercising in the park, and other such pointless things didn't really help to improve the movie in any way. "Cemetery of Splendor" is slow and uneventful to say the least. However, despite this dull and mind-numbing slow pace, then there is something aesthetic and profound about the movie and its editing.

I think what writer and director Apichatpong Weerasethakul was trying to accomplish with this movie was lost on me, or somehow lost in transition.

For the few readers of my reviews, I apologize for the recent blockbuster posts. "Arrival" and "Kubo" not very far off the map, but perhaps you can take this journey.

It's an exotic film, but not in the common sense. I suspect one could go to Thailand and not really find what this film presents, it may not exist.

Like mind-reading, meditation, religious shrines, beauty creams, ring worm, and reincarnation....we don't really see them in action, but can sense they are present. Might as well add love and history to that list.

Things we cannot see but know are there including the current in water and the air moved by fans, images used to separate scenes in this film.

In the middle of this "Cemetery of Spendor" there is a scene, not linearly part of the plot, that puts us in a theater for a coming attractions unreal reel of a Thai ghost film. So this film too is a ghost film, even if the principal ghost, Itt, is not dead but hovering between lives past and present. Sleepwalking and seance-summoned (well not really a seance, there is a medium.

The films pace is languid, a dog is allowed to wander into frame, a hen guides its chicks past a door in a school converted to a hospital. The lead character, she has been through both, now and then.

One of my all-time favorite films, "Travelers and Magicians" has a similar feel....although that was a story, and this is almost more of a poem.

Certainly not for everyone, but you will love it. And you'll want one of those psychedelic apnea respirators with color tubes. Also we find out that Europeans are living the American Dream....but dreams for this director can clearly be tricky.

In my limited exposure, Weerasethakul has a wonderful way of seeing/thinking and filming, here's his weather and sports short that we got to see at SFMoMa last year.

Warning : it is definitely a film as art feature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fYrRwASGQA one of my sons sure appreciated it over the Calder sculptures. To each, his own....but glad to have visited this Sleepwalking Land. (Wow he should get the cinematic rights to that book by Mia Couto!)

Once again Weerasethakul comes to us with an enigmatic, folklore-linked story. I find his stories and style of cinema to what Romania does with its cinema. The subject is so foreign and exotic to the normal cinephile, which 80% of the time, because of sheer quantity, consumes American cinema, that when we get to live such a film we are either fooled or dazzled by the narrative.

This is what I feel about Romanian cinema. I, being romanian, see romanian films about communism as something akin to beating a dead horse - and pretty bland cinematically. As a filmmaker that is a very interesting topic to tackle because of the lack of criticism, we couldn't satisfy back then...so, of course, we're gonna milk that cow for as long as possible, mostly because that romanian new wave was filled with directors that lived in that dying period of romanian communism.

The same is happening with Weerasethakuls movies. They are exotic, different, and out-of-the-ordinary...so because of this fresh air approach, the cinephile will most of the time love it unconditionally. I still think his images communicate something more than what is told but we should be skeptical while watching this...he might just dazzle us.

I feel the sleeping soldiers are a metaphor for the laziness of man and his lack of action. And we can find the main actress here also in "Syndromes...", so it's the same universe, as well as the ever-present erection.

I'd normally start a review by describing what I thought the basic plot of the movie was. In this case, to say Cemetery of splendor has a plot to follow or think about would be misleading. I am not exaggerating when I say that. I don't think I have ever seen a movie that didn't once seem to have any desire to invest me in its story.

The performances, despite the actors having extremely minimal demands from the script, were stiff and unconvincing. The "characters" barely seem like real people, reacting to events and other characters robotically and undramatically. Virtually nothing of consequence happens to anybody the whole movie. The characters certainly don't act like it, and the whole experience comes off as disconnected and distant. There is no narrative thrust and nothing to connect to.

The only positive thing I have to say about Cemetery of Splendor is it looks pretty. Most of the shots in the movie would make for very nice-looking stills. However, the movie holds on most of its shots long past necessary. Nothing is being communicated to the audience, and there is no important revelation to absorb, such as in movies directed by Steve Mcqueen, Micheal Haneke, Stanley Kubrick, or any number of directors that use long picturesque shots.

If I were to sum up Cemetery of Splendor in a word, it would be unmemorable. It fails to entertain, emotionally involve, or intellectually stimulate. Unless you are looking to turn off your brain and stare at a series of pleasing images for two hours with some minimal ambiance, I would not recommend Cemetery of Splendor

In Thailand, an elementary school has been turned into a clinic to care for soldiers suffering from a mysterious sudden sleeping sickness. Jenjira is a housewife volunteer at the clinic. She takes more interest in one particular patient Itt. Whenever he wakes, she befriends him. Others claim the school was built on an ancient Royal cemetery and the soldier's energy are being drained to fight battles in the other world. Jenjira befriends medium Keng who claims to be able to be possessed by the comatose men.

The camera style is very static. The camera is set up in one position and the scene unfolds without any edits. These scenes last as long as a minute or two. It has a hypnotic feel at first but it does get boring after awhile. The central mystery keeps one's interest but it gets more and more perplexing. It becomes an exercise in surreal storytelling. There are some head-scratching things going on and sometimes I wonder if they are dreams. Also why are they digging up the field? It would be more compelling if the visuals could be more surreal. They need to be more imaginative and crazier. The movie needs to explain better or be completely inexplicable.

Don't know what the director is trying to tell. This is so monotone, tedious and boring that made me fall in a state of somnolence similar to the one his actors are suffering.

Continuous cuts to unconnected scenes, long scenes of nothing happening.

Not for me.

Lost brain cells. I can't believe I spent 2 hours watching this garbage. A terrible movie in everything. Only for "smart critics" who think they found something interesting in this nonsense fairy tale.

I got fooled again by the high ratings on IMDb. It was my mistake though, didn't see there were only thirteen reviews before mine. So it's obvious that the positive reviewers are or paid to do so or are related to someone playing in the movie or crew. I already saw a lot of really bad movies but this one must be in the top three of worse movies I ever saw. It's because I took a very long nap in the afternoon that I didn't fall asleep watching this garbage. Cinicly the movie is about sleep, while you will literally fight to not fall asleep watching this. I don't even want to say anything about the story line because there is just none. The only thing I can say about that is it's extremely boring. I didn't think it was even possible to make something so boring and doing it for more then two hours. Now if you are like the thirteen other morons that wrote a positive review you will probably like the complete absurd scenes like a shot of a book that goes on for several minutes, a scene where people change seats on benches in a park for several minutes, shots of a wall for several minutes, shots of a tree for several minutes and so on. I see this movie is categorized as fantasy also. Don't get fooled by that either, there is no fantasy at all. You can't even rate the actors because I don't think they are actually real actors. They're probably some random people they took out of the jungle there and gave a couple of dollars to just sit around and look depressed. In conclusion, if you are like me and always finish a movie you started to watch, even though it's absolute garbage, do not start watching this one. It will be two hours of your life you will never get back. You could pay me 10000 euros to watch it again and I won't do it. If you're not like me just start watching it and I will guarantee you that you will give up before half of the movie. Do something useful instead. Paint a wall or so and watch it dry. That will be more pleasant to watch then this.

Not worth watching; no interesting plot, no intriguing dialogues. Beautiful sceneries.... that is it.