“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

If you try to make logical sense of the 2010 film “Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” you won’t like it. But if you can turn off your ‘left brain’ and watch this film from your creative, flowing, rhythmic hemisphere, you’re in for a treat.

“Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives” feels like a dream–a dream that presents death in a palatable way. It follows Uncle Boonme during the last days of his life, but director Apichatpong Weerasethakul weaves in spaces and times far beyond those few days.

The film is set in a rural landscape, surrounded by lush greenery and natural beauty, which serves as a powerful contrast to the sterile and clinical environment often associated with death and dying. Even in the film’s many moments of silence, the soundscape is filled with living, breathing sounds of the jungle.

As Boonme edges closer to the end of his life, the spirit world becomes more accessible to him and those around him. He’s visited by the ghost of his dead wife and his lost son, who returns as an ape ghost with glowing red eyes. Yet somehow these visits feel unremarkable, like they’re just a normal part of the journey.

Instead of depicting death as a tragic or fearful event, the film presents it as a natural part of the cycle of life. Uncle Boonmee seems to be at peace with his impending death. This presents a refreshingly positive perspective on the end-of-life process, and it’s a powerful reminder that death is not something to be feared, but rather accepted as a part of the human experience.

Boonme’s wife makes an appearance at dinner.
Credit: Rogerebert.com

Boonme, as the title suggests, can also recall his past lives. Weerasethakul cuts to these previous, and possible future, incarnations without any segues or warnings. To some, this might come off as jarring and lacking in explanation. But again, if you turn off the need for logic, it takes on a dreamlike state. Coincidentally, many people at the end of their lives seem to experience such a dreamlike state. It’s almost like the director is trying to get us to experience what the end of life might feel like by prioritizing this hallucinatory state over a linear story arc.

The film suggests that by remembering our past lives, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the world, and ultimately find peace in the face of death. Towards the end of his time on Earth, Boonme visits a cave with twinkling walls and blind fish in the water. The cave is a metaphor representing the womb–a place where a dying man comes to be reborn into his next life.

“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” is a strange, thought-provoking film that explores the theme of death and the afterlife in a unique and moving way. The film’s use of imagery and symbolism, its exploration of past lives, and its emphasis on the spiritual dimension of death make it a powerful meditation on the human experience of death.