The tone is far too "wow life is beautiful" for my tastes but still it works at a good level

The film begins with a farmer called Chok approaching the end of his life, he looks at the work of the Royal family in his country and sees the many good things they do and wonders if maybe he could have done more. We then see Chok reborn and we follow him from his time as a baby, a young man wanting to carry the world, a man lost in partying and not chasing passion and then into an older man with a family who works to support them but has the same feeling that maybe something is missing. Throughout all of this the film has a floaty soundtrack in the background and the narration is a little hushed and a bit breathless in the delivery.

This approach gives the film a feeling that matches the sense given by the title – the sense of this being an arty film filled with the sense of wonder at how we all are one in the universe aren't we and isn't life all just a bit, y'know, beautiful if we can just work out how to reach out and touch one another and find value in the small things in life etc etc. Maybe it is because I am so very middle class, but I do tend to push away from these types of sentiments and thoughts because I generally associate them being made by people who have just come out of personal meditative yoga classes and are telling their friends over coffees about this new deep peace they have discovered while back at home the underpaid nanny looks after the kids. I know this is more about me than anything else but I'm being honest, and just because the film is delivered in Thai doesn't make me feel any different about that.

That said, despite this tone, I did feel like the pace of the film and the very fluid manner of the "life" and the visuals meant that I was engaged and, because it never went too deep, it did feel reasonably honest for the most part. These same aspects did also mean that the film tended to feel a bit pat and obvious as well, which again fed into how I bristled against it. If you are the type of person that goes in for such meditative phrases etc then you will love this because it does that very well and it also is filmed and structured very well too; for me however I could not get over the cornier aspects of it and, although I did like it on some level, this barrier was always there for me thanks to the music, the basic ideas and the hushed narration.

Thai cinema blends spirituality, folklore, and experimental techniques, producing films that balance mystical introspection with popular entertainment. It stands out in Southeast Asia for its inventiveness and range, spanning from lyrical slow cinema to inventive genre-blending films that seamlessly weave in horror, romance, and social critique with unique narrative styles rooted in Thai tradition.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)

The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)

Chok is reborn again and again as he tries to fix the mistakes of his past lives.

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