228. Krabi 2562; movie review

KRABI 2562
Cert U
90 mins
BBFC advice: TBA

Just when I am so wrapped up in film-watching that I fear I am drifting into Pseud's Corner, I bump into a movie which proves I haven't developed an appreciation for abstract art after all.
For example, having spent 90 minutes viewing Krabi 2562 (the Buddhist calendar for 2019), I am scratching my head in wondering what the point was.
In part, I presume that Anocha Suwichakornpong and Ben Rivers’ movie is an exploration of the tourist community on beautiful Krabi island in Thailand.
But it also wanders off into the land of the lingering camera during which its focus isn't at all clear.
As I have indicated many times previously, I don't have much of an eye for art but have a passion for story-telling.
But there is simply no story in this documentary. It flicks from tourists in a cave to the recording of a commercial and then on to an old man who lives in a shack.
Sure, there are moments which look pretty but I can't say that the movie does a better job than the Krabi tourist board of presenting the island because it surely doesn't.
And then, completely incongruously, there are suddenly two cave dwellers - as if we have drifted back many thousands of years.
I read some of the films publicity material in an attempt to enlighten myself but it left me none the wiser.
Is the movie a dig at consumerism and invasive tourism? If so, why didn't its makers just say so and give clear examples?
Why were five minutes dedicated to seeing primaryschool children singing the Thai national anthem in a playground?
Why was there a mini obsession with young women wearing bikinis which exposed their buttock cheeks?
What was the relevance of an actor making a commercial, an old disused picture house and, yet again, the cave dwellers?
The truth is that Krabi 2562 didn't engage me nearly enough to find out or even hypothesise.

Reasons to watch: If you are thinking of visiting the Thai island
Reasons to avoid: It meanders without any obvious focus

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 3/10

Did you know? Of the 5,078 deaths in Thailand during the 2004 tsunami, 476 were in Krabi.

The final word. Anocha Suwichakornpong: "I considered the tourists as ethnographic subjects as much as the other local people we filmed. It’s interesting to me that people often find tourists funny or annoying. And yet, we are all tourists at some point in our lives."

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