Blissfully Yours (2002) User Reviews

This may very well be happiness

[Segalen1911 · 8/10 · 23 October 2002]

This second feature of Apichatpong Weerasethakul is more an experience than a story-dependent film. Something strange happens to your feeling for time while watching this two-hour long film: time seems suspended, absent. When 45 minutes into the film the opening credits suddenly appear, they come as a bit of a shock, because by then you are irresistibly drawn into the non-story.

The way this film treats time is reminiscent of several films by Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang: long, drawn-out scenes, in real-time or almost, and with little or no dialogue. Also the relationship between the main characters brings to mind Tsai's films, more in particular 'Aiqing Wansui' with its triangular relationship.

'Blissfully Yours' is an impressionist rendering of a lazy afternoon in the mountainous border region between Thailand and Myanmar. Min is an illegal immigrant from Myanmar, who takes his girlfriend Roong for a pick-nick. They are joined later by Orn, an older woman employed by Roong to take care of Min.

One of the main ingredients in impressionism is the sun, and the sun plays an important though discrete role in this film also. It is present everywhere in the second part of the film, softly filtered through the canopy of the jungle, but also as a threat to Min who has a skin disease and was told to stay out of the sun.

What also filters through in the film is the political issue of Myanmarese immigrants in northern Thailand. The first half hour shows the three main characters consulting a doctor about Min's skin condition. Min, who has no papers, doesn't speak - perhaps because the doctor would refuse to treat him if she knew her patient was an illegal alien and not a Thai. And the doctor's refusal to give Min a 'fit-to-work' certificate unless he can produce official papers is typical of the administrative vicious circle so many illegal immigrants are caught in all around the world.

This makes for a stark contrast between the first and second part of the film, between grim reality and a dreamy, lazy afternoon that is bathed in light.

American audiences may feel uneasy seeing sex scenes that are neither censored, clinical, beautified or violent. Not recommended for viewers who require car chases and shoot-outs, or for those who don't like ants.

To whom Sud sanaeha won't seem boring

[paul-balaur · 7/10 · 25 November 2009]

I always love reading IMDb comments as they really help find the right meaning of a film. Take user federovsky, who is being praised by User Cliff Solane, in the comment I read this 2009 right after watching the film. One reads: "Nothing is revealed by the film, no deep or hidden meanings - possibly no meaning at all except to show a few odd people having a rather odd sort of afternoon in the forest. Happy for some, sad for others. Nothing to make us think, except try to figure out what was the point of it all." Well, very nice - except for there to find something to make us think, you have to believe first, that there is some point to it all. This film does not really give answers (besides what smth memorable or b l i s s actually is), it just opens questions. Shouldn't the question about the nature of reality and the nature of happiness be always the highest objective of a film? If you think not, forget this boring film.

A blissful afternoon in the sun.

[Vitarai · 10/10 · 21 April 2003]

Blissfully Yours as the film is being called in the U.S. is not a perfect film. That said, my initial reaction fades as I re-examine the film in my mind's eye. It has an ethereal quality, especially the second two-thirds of the film (after the credits finally roll). The film plays with the whole idea of what is film. When does a film begin?

Initially you feel as if you have just walked in on the personal lives of the characters. You are quietly viewing their life, or maybe you're just along for the ride. This is especially driven home while in the car with two of the main characters, Roong and Min, as they drive around. At times you are viewing them from the outside, at others inside the car watching them, and at still others, just looking behind at where they have come from. In a way it is in these sequences that the director gives you clues about how to view the overall film. The first third, prior to the credits, is showing you as a viewer where these three characters come from.

Once the credits roll we only see one other person (ok, we do see the back of another person on a scooter) besides the three main characters. At this point it becomes their film. Their afternoon in the sun. In the jungle, away from all of life's troubles, it is a moment of bliss. It allows Min to forget for a moment his skin problem, and his life left behind in Burma. It allows Roong to forget for a moment her regimented life as a factory girl, laboriously painting the same mass produced items, over, and over again. And it allows Orn the opportunity to finally let go and relax; to come to terms with her own past; wherein, she may have had a child that drowned, and has been unable to forgive herself.

The film is deliberately slow paced, and yet I never once felt bored, or disinterested in what I was watching. It is not filled with action, but with feeling. It is a film about release. The letting go of our worldly cares for a blissful moment in the sun. I recommend you take a lazy afternoon and see Blissfully Yours. Let it help you escape into the jungle of your own mind.

A film about alienation and isolation

[Newflo2VL · 21 June 2004]

I am amazed at how riveting I found so slow-moving a film in which almost nothing happens. The relaxation and fun and peace that the charcaters find on a sunny afternoon in a dense forest points up their isolation from each other and from everyone else in their world. In the final shots, even Min's genitals are isolated -- by the girlfriend playing with them and by himself.

What we feel for "bitch/mental case" Orn as she weeps while Roong plays with Min's isolated manhood is moving at the deepest level.

The gradual drifting to isolated sleep by everyone at the close perhaps pushes the dramatic and filmic possibilities beyond the usable limit and inclines the viewer to call, "Okay, film student, enough!" But overall, the director seems to have achieved exactly what he wanted -- and making you wait is one of the main things he wanted. The film hangs wonderfully together: The long opening squence in which Min refuses to speak with the doctor is followed by the doctor's session with a father and daughter who speak all to much and never communicate because of the father's hearing aid problems.

Don't miss this; and do watch it not expecting Thais and Burmese to be westerners and not expecting a Thai film to be cued to car chases.

Speaks directly to the human spirit

[howard.schumann · 10/10 · 4 April 2010]

An unknown author once said that "love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end." Blissfully Yours, the second feature from Thai director Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, is a film about ecstasy that happens outside of time. It is roughly divided into two parts - one ordinary, the other transcendent and is without a typical plot or character development. Rather, it speaks directly to the human spirit, to its capacity to transcend the "stuff" of life and reach for the eternal.

Blissfully Yours begins in the small Thai city of Khon Kaen as Min (Min Oo), an apparently mute young man with a skin condition visits a doctor together with his girlfriend Roong (Kanokporn Tongaram) and Orn (Jenjira Jansuda), an older woman who has lost a child by drowning. Shot in the offices of the director's doctor parents, we soon learn that Min is a Burmese immigrant who is in Thailand illegally and is seeking a work permit from the doctor in order to remain in the country and that Orn has been hired to look after him. Without proper ID, however, the doctor refuses to cooperate.

The film then moves to the souvenir factory where Roong works on an assembly line worker hand painting Disney figurines, and then to Orn who prepares a skin cream for Min by chopping vegetables. There is also a glimpse of the office where Orn's husband works. About forty five minutes into Blissfully Yours, credits suddenly appear on the screen, we hear a Thai popular song in the background, and we know that we are in unfamiliar territory. Taking time off from work because of an illusory illness, Roong and Min drive to the countryside for an afternoon picnic recorded in long, uninterrupted takes and the film never looks back. Stress fades away as scenes of nature replace the familiar images of city life. Roong and Min walk through dense jungle to reach an opening in the woods with a clear view of mountains and streams.

Not much is said as the camera lingers on Roong and Min as they eat berries, splash in the cool waters, and engage in erotic activities that seem to be initiated by Roong alone as she caresses Min's sexual organ in full camera view. There is much attention given to bodies and their sensitivity to touch especially when we learn that Min's rash is both physical and political. Through a voice over and doodling shown on the screen, we find out that he has been hiding from the Burmese police for an undisclosed reason, has a son in Rangoon, and may have picked up his skin rash while hiding in a septic tank. It is also hinted that Roong is a member of the Karen ethnic group, a hill tribe that have fought for independence from Burma since 1949.

Weerasethakul pushes viewer patience to the limit as shots of Roong snuggling up to the passive Min take several minutes to unfold and one is reminded of Werner Erhard's assertion that boredom is a "high space" to be in. Orn, who is also enjoying sex with a male companion, has her tryst interrupted when her lover's bike is stolen and she makes her way through the forest to join Min and Roong. As Roong and Min lie on their backs looking up to the sky sharing moments of peace and spiritual awareness, Orn lies alone and begins to cry. It is a moment of quiet isolation filled with mystery and magic as this visionary, sexually explicit, and sensual work of art becomes blissfully ours forever.

A beautiful thing...

[kathylove · 10/10 · 11 May 2010]

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is exemplary in pointing to new ways of telling cinematic stories. Here he presents us with a beautiful canvas of cultural impressionism and profound poetic daubings.

Certainly not boring. Certainly not pretentious. And if you find it slow, then you need to readjust your perception of what 'narrative' can do. Slow is a relative term. The inference from some commentators is that slow equals languid and thus dull. But this is anything but languid or dull. It is a beautiful rumination, a poem of pace and intrigue and voluptuous sensitivity.

Sit back, relax and don't rush (where is everyone rushing too, anyway?). Be with the moment and enjoy the art of a magnificent filmmaker.

Blissful Miss?

[ThurstonHunger · 5/10 · 1 May 2021]

An earlier film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. To pause for a second, it is amazing how relatively easy it is these days to watch cinema from all over the world. That alone constitutes something akin to bliss for me at least.

I would say seek out other films by Weerasethakul first, and then proceed to this one if you wish. There is an enchanted Thai forest here as well as in "Uncle Boonme." His admiration (not quite the right word) for middle-age women seems to be frequent, here it is juxtaposed with an almost Romeo and Juliet, or Adam and Eve, love story. Roong seems so young, and Min is clearly a visitor in her heart, and her country.

There is some sentiment for the director on the "illegal alien" (always a bit strange phrase), Min is minimally communicative in the scenes with the two dominating women, is given voice-over monologues and over-layed sketchings.

Min's skin is featured in the film, don't let it trouble you. But it seems his skin is rejecting Thailand. I guess if this film says anything it's that bliss is fleeting if not even misunderstood. The lovers try to find a place remove from the Orn-ery every day grind, a place between two countries, a sweet safe place off the map.

However, every picnic has ants waiting for it.

Unusual impression

[karolWu · 10/10 · 18 March 2008]

That's not a regular film but rather an unique example of art film. It's more an impression of the director then a drama or romance or anything else. The way how Weerasethakul makes movies one can love or hate.

The main character is a Burmese refugee, Min, who seems to be in love with a Thai young woman,Roong. While she's at work an older woman, Orn, takes care about Min. Once Min and Roong go for a picnic into the forest, where they meet Orn. The background of the movie is a nationwide crackdown on illegal Burmese immigrants in Thailand.

Slow shots, beautiful landscapes, strange plot construction, mysterious details, and somehow erotic and unclear relationship with two women and young man creates a great but very specific kind of cinema.It's a beautiful impression of human relationships.

The Emperor Has No Clothes

[cliff-19 · 3/10 · 21 April 2008]

The hype surrounding Apichatpong seems to me unwarranted. I am reminded of Roger Ebert's comments on Abbas Kiarostami and being utterly unconvinced of the value of his films.

First, there is no story. As soon as a story might be emerging, "Joe" (as he likes to be called these days) moves to something utterly unrelated. He has said that he conceives of nature as an opportunity for the characters to do some self-reflection. This sounds good, but there are no characters to speak of, and except for Orn, no acting whatsoever. No information is given about what they might be reflecting about, and story elements are allowed to vanish (like the distant gunshot).

The slowness itself didn't bother me, but the much-heralded Apichatpong can learn something from Tony Bui, whose first feature film "Three Seasons" is FAR better at the languid development than this. Or look at any of Ousman Sembene's films for the skillful use of dreadfully unskillful non-actors. There is just no excuse, in my mind, for such a self-important and ultimately inept use of non-actors.

User federovsky's comments are to me particularly perceptive. I give it 3; at least he is giving this some thought.

I felt wonderful

[majorpeter · 26 May 2010]

Please do not feel sorry for anyone associated with trying to make something beautiful. A film does not need to have a beginning or an ending, or an elaborate story, it can simply contain moments in time, it can be a visual sensation, this art form, like all, needs not be strictly defined. If you found Blissfully Yours boring, fair game. But this magnificent film put a smile on my face for much of the second half, because I felt what it meant for me to feel, this film is 1000% feeling, so it's great for those who can feel. When we step into nature we can truly suspend time. "Roong, what time is it?", "Wait, I'm still having fun."

Boring

[simon_booth · 2/10 · 28 April 2003]

My first film from this year's San Francisco International Film Festival.

Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON is one of only two Thai films I can think of that have been officially released in the US. This is fairly typical America, where it is often assumed that foreign film = art film. I nearly bought MYSTERIOUS OBJECT, but after reading some reviews I decided to pass, as it sounded rather too strange and a little boring. BLISSFULLY YOURS is the director's second feature, and it all takes place in a single day.

An illegal immigrant from Burma has a rash for some reason, so his girlfriend takes him take him to the doctors in the morning. In the afternoon she makes an excuse to leave work and they drive up to the mountains, where they hang out and eventually have sex. Their friends, an older couple, also have sex.

BLISSFULLY YOURS is unquestionably an art film, and it's the kind that give art films a bad name. Interminably slow, pretentious and ultimately not really about anything. There's enough material for a 10 minute short, padded out to two hours with endless shots of people driving somewhere, or lying on the grass, or generally doing nothing much at all. It's highly reminiscent of the films of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, with a bit of explicit sex thrown in for no reason except perhaps to try and generate some controversy.

There are moments where the film is beautiful, when the couple are in the forest, but ultimately the film is just VERY BORING INDEED. I'm sure there are people that just adore this kind of stuff, and I've seen plenty of slow arty films that I've enjoyed myself for that matter. This film did practically nothing for me though, and I can't recommend it to anybody.

I find it slightly sad that films such as this get US distribution, at least at film festivals, but far more entertaining stuff such as Pee Hua Kard or Pbob - Body Jumper will never ever see the light of US day.

Boring, pretentious and ... slow

[Htapohcysp · 1/10 · 17 November 2003]

I saw this movie at the NatFilm festival (Nightly Movies Festival) in Copenhagen, and it was a huge disappointment. I found the movie virtually void of a story and hopelessly over-stretched. The only reason I have not used profanity here are the IMDb guidelines, the movie is THAT bad.

On a more cheerful note: Most of the cinema-goers that evening managed to sleep some time during the movie (myself included), so after the movie people were well rested. Considering the usual cinema-goers at that festival it is quite an achievement.

I rate this a 1 out of 10. (Because it is impossible to cast a lower vote)

Artlessness does not make good art

[federovsky · 8 August 2004]

This is a film-school level concept with film-school level execution. Some of the scenes are so long and static I half expected a screensaver would kick in. Some people in this website have been trying to make sense of some of the scenes in this film, but I think those conclusions are illusory or wishful thinking, as is much modern art criticism. The real fact is, the film is objectively very poor.

Yes, this is certainly an art film, that is, it's meant to make us think about life rather than simply to entertain. The problem is, it is way too self-consciously an art film, the story is drearily paced (as if trying to be the most artsy film ever made by dint of its sheer slowness) and the execution is quite undistinguished (as if to say it is so artsy that it doesn't even have to try). Nothing is revealed by the film, no deep or hidden meanings - possibly no meaning at all except to show a few odd people having a rather odd sort of afternoon in the forest. Happy for some, sad for others. Nothing to make us think, except try to figure out what was the point of it all. OK it's art, but let's be straight about this: it's extremely poor art.

All of the characters are unendearing, and as we must assume that the director is not trying to disengage us from the movie completely, it must only be because the most basic elements of film-making are being eschewed (this may be done consciously, but for the most part I fear not). The acting is wooden (witness - oh deary me - the factory manager, who may well be a real factory manager, but who has obviously never been in front of a camera in his life), the dialogue is mumbled, and almost every scene is amazingly dislikeable. There is a voice-over at times from the Burmese character that adds nothing but confusion as to who (or what), the film is about. I felt nothing at all for the characters, but very sorry at times for the actors.

The whole thing finally grinds to a virtual standstill in horribly overlong scenes towards the end in which the characters emotions are summed up. The intention here seems to be to impress the images upon us by burning them physically onto our retinas, but basically, artlessness does not make good art, and these scenes just unimpress and leave us cold, as does the whole thing. I live in Thailand and watched this film with my Thai girlfriend and she can confirm that the movie did not provide any insights into the Thai character or Thai way of life. It is just a stick thrown into the air.

This cannot be what the director intended. No offense to him for having a go, but we can all do just as well with a camcorder and a few friends. The real laughing stocks are the film festival organisers who, like the modern art collectors who pay a fortune for bits of trash, were duped into thinking that this, being a slow film from an exotic country, was absolutely just the thing for us to sit and ponder over at their film festival.

Horrible Movie

[sangtich · 1/10 · 29 May 2008]

I love foreign movies from all over the world. But this movie from Thailand nearly made me to hate movies from Thailand the way I hate Hollywoood movies. But, I will not, I will continue to watch movies from Thailand and I will even give it a try and watch another movie from Weerasethakul.

At first, I thought to myself, how in the heck did such a movie even win an award. This movie looked like some amateur movie made by some amateur director. I had to research this director and found out that he is a respectable person in the world of artistic movies. I was really disappointed, that somebody of his caliber could make a movie this horrible. There is no story, nothing, nada. What was he trying to tell us? The only redeeming aspect of this movie is cinematography, the landscapes are beautiful and the scene where the couple are having a picnic is breathtaking. Also the scene at the river is amazing. That is the only good thing I saw in the movie. The movie lacked passion, no emotion. Even the stupid sex scenes were virtually empty, at least you'd expect people to show some emotion here. But, NO! nothing! To add insult to injury, the movie dragged on for a good 2 hours! I just wish the people who awarded this awful movie could just explain to me what they found award-worthy. Maybe I missed it, I am no expert in movie making and all BUT I know a good movie when I see one, and Blissfully Yours is NOT one of them.

NOT RECOMMENDED AT ALL!!!

so sad

[de_lamella · 8 January 2003]

This film is banded in Thailand I haven't seen it yet . Almost people don't know this film even it got some awards nothing in Television news May be this 2003 may some chance in cinema but R version .This film got NC-17 because of naked scenes . It about Love story that some I don't understand I think all of you should see this film if you have a chance .