Tropical Malady begins as an unusually sensitive — in the sense that every element of the mise en scene seems to pulse with its own life force — romance between a Thai soldier and a villager, then transforms into something mythological. Banlop Lomnoi gives the soldier a rock-star swagger, then slowly backs away from it as the relationship becomes more serious, while Sakda Kaewbuadee, as the villager, evokes a coy mysteriousness. These qualities blossom in the film’s second half, which transitions into a dramatization of a folk tale known as “The Spirit’s Path,” about a shaman who takes the form of a tiger. (Here, Lomnoi’s soldier traverses through the thick, foreboding forest in pursuit of Kaewbuadee’s villager, who indeed becomes a beast.) Perhaps Tropical Malady, an early feature from writer-director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, means to filter the men’s experience—if not the queer experience in general—through the lens of Thai mythology? In any case, by the movie’s end, the aching mixture of loneliness and desire transcends the immanent to embrace the metaphysical, a move that is a Weerasethakul signature.
(2/20/2026)
