QUATTRO HONG KONG (2011, A+)

QUATTRO HONG KONG (2011, A+)

--M HOTEL (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, A+15)

--FRIED GLUTINOUS RICE (Herman Yau, A+)

--WE MIGHT AS WELL BE STRANGERS (Heiward Mak, A+)

--THE YELLOW SLIPPER (Fruit Chan, A+)

--OPEN VERDICT (Ho Yuhang, A+)

--PURPLE (Brillante Mendoza, B+/B)

Like Jacques Rivette, Eugène Green, and Phaisit Phanphruksachat, Apichatpong Weerasethakul sometimes can turn images of ordinary things into "a magical world". In M HOTEL, the ordinary images of views inside a room and outside a hotel inspire me to imagine about a drowned world in which mutant people live. There seem to be no visual effects in this film. Only sound effects are used to suggest a drowned world. This kind of techniques reminds me of the wonders found in some films of Rivette, Green, and Phaisit. In the films of Rivette, ordinary streets are turned into streets full of hidden conspiracies. In THE LIVING WORLD (2003, Eugène Green), we regard a dog as a lion, just because the film tells us that a dog is a lion. In BURDEN OF THE BEAST (Phaisit Phanphruksachat), we imagine that the hero is interviewed by an alien from outer space, just because we hear a strange voice, though we never see the alien.

I like FRIED GLUTINOUS RICE, WE MIGHT AS WELL BE STRANGERS, and THE YELLOW SLIPPER very much, just because these films remind me of something in my personal life in the past, such as some kinds of food I ate when I was a child, the moments when my friends and I walk along some streets in Bangkok from 0100-0300 AM, or the moments when I took a bus late at night.

I don't exactly share the same experience as the protagonist of THE YELLOW SLIPPER, because I didn't go to see a movie with anyone in my family, but the protagonist of THE YELLOW SLIPPER reminds me of my own childhood, because the protagonist of THE YELLOW SLIPPER saw many films when he was a little child and because he doesn't have a father. Films have become his substitute father.

Thanks to Chaisiri Jiwarangsan for this photo.