Apichatpong Weerasethakul Short Films

Thirdworld (1998) — March 10, 2016

Early short from Apichatpong Weerasethakul already follows his split narrative structure. First half is two men talking at night, images of feet and hands and murky shadows, they talk about their pasts, the villages they’re from. It’s very mellow and sweet. The second half expands into the village as a whole, still in shadow, shacks and mud and water. A woman berates someone on the soundtrack, alongside the constant, hypnotic lapping of the sea.

Worldly Desires (2005) — March 11, 2016

Apichatpong Weerasethakul short wherein a film crew (or film crews) makes a movie in the jungle. Between takes of a music video and a young lovers on the run melodrama, the crew chitchats about the jungle, movie-making technology, and the availability and relative attractiveness of Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves. It’s quite lovely.

The Anthem (2006) — March 11, 2016

An Apichatpong Weerasethakul preview, a kind of purification done before a movie begins, as in the National Anthem that plays before every show in Thai cinemas (and pointedly doesn’t in Cemetery of Splendour). Even this five minute film is split in half: the first part has three women chatting by a canal (one of whom is Jenjira Pongpas, if I’m not mistaken), then the second has the camera swirl one and a half times around a film crew recording an indoor badminton match. The women work at a table in the middle of the court, doing something with what looks like yellow flowers, while the anthemic electronic music plays. I’d stand and salute.

Phantoms of Nabua (2009) — March 15, 2016

“It is like writing history with a flaming soccer ball.” — Woodrow Wilson

Ashes (2012) — March 15, 2016

“The picture I drew turned out to be of my home town.”

Sakda (2012) — March 15, 2016

Only found this here with French subtitles. There are only a couple of lines, but my French is abysmal. But it looks and sounds very cool.

Cactus River (2012) — March 15, 2016

The cinema is Jenjira Pongpas chopping fruit by a river.

Blue (2018) — December 23, 2018

A hunk, a hunk of burning love

October Rumbles (2020) — November 25, 2020

My neighbor’s large adult son put up a big screen in his backyard too. He uses it to watch Stranger Things.