Syndromes and a Century (2006)

bfi, my third apichatpong film

Apichatpong’s themes:

• myth พื้นบ้าน มีความสัจนิยมมหัศจรรย์ (local myths, magical realism)
• ความเข้าใจศาสนาพุทธแบบไทยๆ บ้านๆ เช่น ชาติก่อน ชาติหน้า การกลับชาติมาเกิด บาป บุญ (common and pervasive Thai understandings of Buddhist concepts such as past lives, reincarnation, karma as a credit system)
• บทสนทนาของชาวบ้าน เหมือนไม่ได้พูดอะไร ถามไถ่เรื่องอาหาร แฟน หยอกล้อกัน (conversations are mundane and simple, realistic - people in his films ask each other about food, tease each other about their crushes, etc.)
• overwhelming passion that has a primal tinge to it - expressed awkwardly and obviously.

this is a political film. Apichatpong’s films are political.

• divided into two parts: the first part is set in a suburban hospital, the second is set in a hospital in the city.

• the characters are representatives of the upper/ruling class in Thai society who embody authoritarianism - soldiers, monks, doctors, there’s even a military physician!

• interview: more psychological profiling and arbitrary, nonsensical questions rather than profession-related questions. the doctor reads out the questions, carries out the procedure without questioning the absurdity of the questions, the interviewee also answers without missing a beat and, of course, with no inkling of surprise or amusement. this is a portrayal of Thai authoritarianism and how it manifests itself in such institutions.

• ทุกคนในระบบล้วนป่วย โดยเฉพาะในเมือง (everyone in the system is sick, especially those in the city).

• soldiers enter and exit hospitals naturally, reinforcing the idea of hospitals as a disciplinary institution - Foucault’s “docile bodies” demonstrated in full effect.

• basement of the city hospital - exclusively for soldiers and their families, and is where blatant corruption within the system occurs and no one bats an eye; it is, an accepted custom i.e. ‘how things are’.

• various shots of doctors looking despondent - they are sick and hollow. as if the air in the hospital, an institution guarded by all-too-pristine Buddhist statues and statues of royals, is slowly poisoning them.

  • as seen in the shot of the air vent?? the “mouth” of the vent looks like an ominous mouth of a creature that threatens to consume the audience.
  • scene that immediately follows that: a park in Bangkok where a large group of people dance along with the aerobic instructor, their movements homogenous and stripped of any individual identity. we assume that the fumes from the basement of the hospital were sucked into the black tube and released into the Bangkok air, poisoning everyone as well. the message here could not be clearer - authoritarianism pervades Bangkok where citizens dance along to the beat of an empty but incredibly catchy pop song.