Watching "Love Syndrome" is like experiencing a dream woven by the director, and the film has been translated as "Syndrome and One Hundred Years", a hundred years is just a symbol, what is important is change.
In the first part of the film, a hospital is set in a tropical rainforest, wrapped in vibrant green, and the female doctor speaks in a soft and unusual tone, forgetting that the hospital is the place where life and death and illness occur.
The female doctor asked the transfer doctor Dr. Nohng's test questions were cute because of a hint of incomprehensibility, "Do you prefer triangles, squares or circles?" "What color do you want it to be?"
"What is DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane universal insecticide)?" Dr. Nohng's answer was no less than that, "Destroy dirty things?" Deep down to you? ）”
The corridors of the hospital are tropical, and the forest and hospital are frequent scenes in director Apichatpong's films.
"I lived with my parents near the hospital, grew up surrounded by illness, and could easily glimpse death. Life and death are mixed together. I didn't know how to think when I was a kid, but I'm thankful to have that experience. Even now, I'm familiar with the colors and smells of hospitals. "The film is based on the director's childhood memories.
The monk who came to the clinic recounted his dreams and talked about his worries, and the female doctor calmly listened to him recount his dreams, "Can you talk to the chickens?" The monk replied, "Midnight dreams come back, and they always attack ." The female doctor comforted him that the chicken was eaten too much, and the uric acid was too high and the knee would hurt. Between the female doctors coming in and out, the monk saw the panic in the female doctor's mood, "Because of the money, you know", the female doctor frowned when she heard it, because she was said to be right, and the monk gave her ancestral herbs.
The dentist showed the monk his teeth, said he was a Thai country music singer, and sang as he spoke, looking at his teeth while singing.
Dr. Dr. Nohng confessed to the female doctor, describing her inner pain, and the female doctor replied, "I know." ”
Accompanied by the gentle sunset outside the window, a very gentle love song sung by the dentist is heard, and the song is integrated with the natural scenery and the people in it.
Apichatpong once said he liked forests "because it is a neutral place, there are no norms, and it can return to our roots." ”
When the character is placed in it, the social identity begins to become blurred.
In the second part of the film, the characters come to the modern city, where the hospital is full of white coats, white walls, incandescent lamps, and white medical equipment, and the color of the film changes from green to white.
Also known as dr. Dr. Nohng opens, the same question, the doctor responds with a change in attitude. Regarding the DDT question, Dr. Nohng did not answer the witty answer of "Deep down to you." The young people waiting on the sidelines still gave gifts to the female doctor, but did not pursue the female doctor. The monks who came to see the doctor, who had no more children from the countryside to take care of, still gave the doctor herbs.
The dentist no longer talks to or sings with the young monks, the whole process is a procedural operation, only the monk insists on removing the cloth covering his face.
The female doctor is trying to persuade Dr. Nohng moved with her. Dr. Nohng doesn't seem to have loved as much as he did in the previous story. People no longer talk cordially, cicadas cannot be heard, music is gone, and the corridors, stairs and basements in the hospital have replaced the rice fields in the countryside.
The medic in the basement full of prosthetics looks like he's going through a nightmare. The fog that appears at the end of the movie gives people an association, what does the fog symbolize? Whether it is the absorption of human aura or the vortex of memories, or the omen before the illusion dissipates, everyone feels differently.
The character dialogue in apichatpong films has a strong personal style, the rhythm of communication between people that leaves room for communication between people, and the editing technique that disrupts the order creates a mysterious and unknown atmosphere, so it is more similar to the dream experience.
Apichatpong once said in an interview with The Story of Time and Yin – New Taiwanese Films, "When I watch Taiwanese films such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Yang Dechang, or Tsai Mingliang, I always fall asleep. Years later, my films also put the audience to sleep, and I think there's a special power of a film like this that can transfer the viewer to a different world, a different state of relaxation, where we can temporarily let go of ourselves, and the film extradites us to the world of dreams, and after waking up, we're still there, almost like a special journey. ”
"In particular, Hou Xiaoxian's films made me decide to return to Thailand to work, his films made me feel 'home', linked to the past growth experience, I think his films are about memory, such a spark makes me believe that memory has its existence value, movies are memories." 」
The interesting thing about the movie "Love Syndrome" is that the two parts of the film can be understood as stories that take place in different time and space on the timeline. It can also be regarded as the virtual and real of the same time and space, the same characters and dialogues, blurring the dream and reality, and thus becoming ambiguous, this sense of ambiguity is exactly where the charm of the movie lies, and the strong contrast formed by the changes in the two parts gives people the feeling of being incomparably real, like having a very lucid dream.
【Screening Information】
"Love Syndrome"
Director: Apichatpong Welashaku
June 16Th Saturday 15:45-17:30 Shanghai Starlight Cinema (ASIA-Singapore flagship store)
June 24 Sunday 15:45-17:30 SFC Cinema (New Hengshan Store)