Release CalendarDVD & Blu-ray ReleasesTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsIn TheatersComing SoonMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysAPA Heritage MonthSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Original title: Loong Boonmee raleuk chat
  • 20102010
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 54m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
16K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
On his deathbed, Uncle Boonmee, recalls his many past lives.
Play trailer1:41
1 Video
99+ Photos
  • Drama
  • Fantasy
Dying of kidney disease, a man spends his last, somber days with family, including the ghost of his wife and a forest spirit who used to be his son, on a rural northern Thailand farm.Dying of kidney disease, a man spends his last, somber days with family, including the ghost of his wife and a forest spirit who used to be his son, on a rural northern Thailand farm.Dying of kidney disease, a man spends his last, somber days with family, including the ghost of his wife and a forest spirit who used to be his son, on a rural northern Thailand farm.
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
16K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Apichatpong Weerasethakul
  • Writers
    • Phra Sripariyattiweti(inspired by the book of)
    • Apichatpong Weerasethakul
  • Stars
    • Thanapat Saisaymar
    • Jenjira Pongpas
    • Sakda Kaewbuadee
Top credits
  • Director
    • Apichatpong Weerasethakul
  • Writers
    • Phra Sripariyattiweti(inspired by the book of)
    • Apichatpong Weerasethakul
  • Stars
    • Thanapat Saisaymar
    • Jenjira Pongpas
    • Sakda Kaewbuadee
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 91User reviews
    • 219Critic reviews
    • 87Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 11 wins & 25 nominations

    Videos1

    Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
    Trailer 1:41
    Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

    Photos103

    Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Jenjira Pongpas, Sakda Kaewbuadee, and Natthakarn Aphaiwonk in Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Jenjira Pongpas and Sakda Kaewbuadee in Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Jenjira Pongpas, Kanokporn Tongaram, and Sakda Kaewbuadee in Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Jenjira Pongpas and Kanokporn Tongaram in Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Jenjira Pongpas and Kanokporn Tongaram in Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Jenjira Pongpas, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Natthakarn Aphaiwonk, and Thanapat Saisaymar in Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Jenjira Pongpas, Natthakarn Aphaiwonk, and Thanapat Saisaymar in Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Thanapat Saisaymar
    Thanapat Saisaymar
    • Boonmeeas Boonmee
    Jenjira Pongpas
    Jenjira Pongpas
    • Jenas Jen…
    Sakda Kaewbuadee
    Sakda Kaewbuadee
    • Tongas Tong…
    Natthakarn Aphaiwonk
    • Huayas Huay…
    Geerasak Kulhong
    Geerasak Kulhong
    • Boonsongas Boonsong…
    Wallapa Mongkolprasert
    Wallapa Mongkolprasert
    • Princessas Princess
    Kanokporn Tongaram
    • Roongas Roong
    • (as Kanokporn Thongaram)
    • …
    Samud Kugasang
    • Jaaias Jaai…
    Sumit Suebsee
    • Soldieras Soldier
    Mathieu Ly
    • Farmeras Farmer
    Vien Pimdee
    • Farmeras Farmer
    Akachai Aodvieng
    Prakasit Padsena
    Nikom Kammach
    Chophaka Chaiyuchit
    Winai Ruenrerng
    Kumgieng Jittamaat
    Miti Jittamaat
    • Director
      • Apichatpong Weerasethakul
    • Writers
      • Phra Sripariyattiweti(inspired by the book of)
      • Apichatpong Weerasethakul
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

    More like this

    Cemetery of Splendor
    6.8
    Cemetery of Splendor
    Tropical Malady
    7.1
    Tropical Malady
    Syndromes and a Century
    7.3
    Syndromes and a Century
    Memoria
    6.6
    Memoria
    Blissfully Yours
    6.9
    Blissfully Yours
    Mekong Hotel
    6.1
    Mekong Hotel
    Mysterious Object at Noon
    6.8
    Mysterious Object at Noon
    Ten Years Thailand
    6.3
    Ten Years Thailand
    Goodbye, Dragon Inn
    7.1
    Goodbye, Dragon Inn
    Beau travail
    7.3
    Beau travail
    Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
    7.6
    Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
    Werckmeister Harmonies
    8.0
    Werckmeister Harmonies

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Shot on 16mm film rather than digital. Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul wanted to film in this format as the film is all about dying traditions.
    • Goofs
      The first time a ghost appears, during dinner, the nephew passes the ghost a glass of water. You can see the ghost image superimposed over the nephew's arm when he places the glass of water on the table.
    • Quotes

      Boonsong: I couldn't have experienced this if I hadn't mated with a monkey ghost.

    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Cannes Film Festival 2010 (2010)

    User reviews91

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    Buddha, Barthes, and Boonmee
    In order to appreciates the film, you have to understand that this movie is not just a normal film where you can expects classical narrative and plot. the directer not only have Buddhism as a philosophical point of view but he also put a little bit of Thai historical and political aspects in to the film.

    In my opinion, the theme of this film is the man's struggle from human condition and transformation.

    here are some few points I'd like to make concerning the film:

    1. Man and Illusion

    Before humankind, there was nature, which is pure and true. there are trees and wind and animals and so on. then there are man, which is basically another living specie. both animal and human have the same drive (sex, food, shelter etc.) the only different between man and animal is the ability to understand "sign" (read semiotic for more understanding) thus, human being created language, painting and symbol and so on. in other word, because our brain can perceived sign, so we can created ART. Art was created by man since the days of the cave man i.e. cave painting in Lascaux, France. (did you noticed that there are also cave paintings in the film?)

    Man are proud that we are the only specie that can create and appreciate art, but what we didn't realized is that we are also the only specie that have the ability the created the illusion/lie/falsehood. Because of evolution, our unique brain can store memories and emotion, mix it up, and then created stuffs from it. because of this, the more time pass, the more we are far away from the truth; culture, law, politic, social status etc. are all MAN-MADE ILLUSION

    2. Illusion of Dualism

    It's seems like our perceived reality of "duality in nature" is embedded in our brain. we separated things into yin/yang mentality: day/night, good/bad, man/woman, live/death. one scene in particular shows how Boonmee kill the worms in his tamarind tree because "it's pest". then the next scene he show his sister the bee hive and seems very protective of it (he explain to his sister to avoid the larvae area on the plate). When he told his sister that his condition is the result of his karma from killing COMMUNIST and PEST, his sister replied "it's alright because you have good intention". When did killing other being can become good intention? Aren't communist human too? Aren't pests and bees are both insects?

    3. The role of photography/Film, Memories, and Reality

    Roland Barthes, in his book "Camera Lucinda", explained that a picture creates a falseness in the illusion of 'what is', where 'what was' would be a more accurate description. We can see a lot of scene involved photography; from the photos Boonmee shows to his dead wife as a proof of her funeral, the obsession of his son before he became a monkey, the final scene which Boonmee told the story about his dream etc. (this is an important scene, we will talk about it later)

    4. In the playground, we created the rules, then we fought each other

    In the film, we see peoples who of separated by this so-called man-made illusion, for example, different nationalities and spoken languages (Thai vs Laos), (Laos vs French) (Isan vs. Central Thai) etc. If you know little bit about Thai history, you will understand that the director also talk about the official vs the people / communism vs democracy(?).

    in the final scene where Boonmee told the story about his dream, we see people wearing uniform. They are obviously appointed as "Soldier/Army". Then in the next photo we saw these soldiers captured the Monkeys Ghost. If you watch the film until this point, by now you should realized that the Monkey ghost is the allegory of the Communist.

    then in the next photo, we saw that the soldier now taking their clothes off and play other kind of war game (throwing rock). The most funny thing is in the last photo, we saw 2 circles draw on the ground. In my opinion, the director suggest that countries, border dispute and war are nothing but a child's game.

    5. Jāti: literally birth, but life is understood as starting at conception

    the word "ชาติ" in Thai word derived from Sanskrit "Jāti", when translated to English it simply means "live". hence the name of the film "Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives" but in fact, the word Jati is the term in Buddhism which is not simply translate as "live" but have a lot more profound meaning.

    By the way, I have the same feeling watching this film and Kubrick's 2001: Space Odyssey. Maybe because it also dealt with the theme of human condition and transformation, but this film is from the Eastern Philosophy point of view, of course.
    helpful•151
    38
    • wasan_s2000
    • Jan 6, 2011

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 1, 2010 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • Thailand
      • United Kingdom
      • France
      • Germany
      • Spain
      • Netherlands
    • Languages
      • Thai
      • French
      • Lao
    • Also known as
      • Bác Boonmee
    • Filming locations
      • Thailand
    • Production companies
      • Kick the Machine
      • Illuminations Films
      • Anna Sanders Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $184,292
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $23,540
      • Mar 6, 2011
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,214,424
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 54 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby SR
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
    Top Gap
    What is the Hindi language plot outline for Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    View list
    List
    The Best Movies and Shows to Watch in May
    See the full list
    View list
    List
    2022 TV Guide: The Best Shows Coming This Year
    See the full list

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Interest-Based Ads

    © 1990-2022 by IMDb.com, Inc.