MovieChat Forums > Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010) Discussion > I didn't get it, can someone help explai...

I didn't get it, can someone help explain?


I know this film is partly about reincarnation, so it is about previous and next lives. But it all seemed to be happening in the present time. How does this correlate?

The only scene I know that may have been in the past is the scene with the catfish and the princess, but I couldn't fit this in either.

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I'd also like some help with an explanation. I'm not above admitting I didn't get it, anyone wanna help us out? I'm usually the one explaining movies to people I watch them with, now i'm the one who doesn't get it!

It seems like you need at least a semi solid knowledge of Thai history/ religion/ culture to understand it all though... but maybe i'm wrong.



"Did you mean for all those words to come out like that or did they just fall out randomly?"-H.H.

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you don't need to know thai history to understand. This is about buddhism. Buddhist believes when you die you will be reincarnated again.
What happens is when you do good deeds or bad deeds depending on which ones you do prevriously, let say you do a good deed in your current life, like help others, and not commit any heinous crime like killing someone then you will born to be a wealthy person or you will be more famous in your next life. It's all about doing good deeds, the more you do it the more it is believe you will be born to a better life next time around. It goes the opposite direction if you've commit murder etc. You could be born as something else other than human.
It's believe that we can be reincarnated as animals as well.

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This question was brought up at a Q and A I went to with director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Even he didn't seem to have the answer. Basically he said each reel in the film, each reincarnation, was inspired by a different piece of content (comic books, soap operas, movies) he consumed growing up. That's the best answer he offered.

He said very little of religion or anything of value from what I can recall.

Last Film Seen: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Rating: 8/10

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That's a bizarre answer. Comic books? Okay, maybe if he's talking about indie books like Ghost World? Could he be referencing strips like Calvin & Hobbes or comedy material like Disney's Scrooge McDuck?

I honestly didn't see that in the film. I'm on the fence with how much I liked the film, loved it, or was kinda blase about it. This makes me lean towards the latter; if the filmmaker intended the reels to be different reincarnations at all, that wasn't clear. There are three incarnations I saw - the water buffalo, Boonmee as a person, and then the princess, maybe? - but not switching with each reel.

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I'd also love an explanation, or more like a total breakdown of the events in the movie and their significance.

I like to watch challenging films and usually have no problem keeping my attention up during a complicated or weird film, but this one went completely over my head!

The only "explanations" I've read say "it's about buddhism"...wow, I kind of figured that out, but I still have no idea why there were gorilla ghosts with glowing eyes, a sex scene between a princess and a fish, multiplying characters and all that stuff.

And what lives of Uncle Boonmee were actually shown? I recall the first scenes in the forest with these buffalos or whatever they were, then later the fish-sex-scene and apart from that it was basically only the main storyline in the house with Boonmee during his last days and the aftermath of his death.

Was that really all? So what does it imply? Is there any message or point?


I really don't want to criticize or discredit tthe movie at this point, but I really have no idea what I watched and while there are many people who claim they loved it I couldn't find one decent explanation/interpretation on these forums.
Anyone?

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