Cemetery of Splendor

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.

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

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.

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.

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.