Syndromes and A Century. Directed by Apichartpong.

When the director made this film, he claimed that he was inspired by his parents and Mozart’s work. Moreover, Apichartpong used to live in the rural area and when he came back, everything changed. It modernized like Bangkok. There’s no plot in this film but there’s something that keeps the audiences watching till the end. In other words, the film charms the audiences by itself. All the characters link together. The plot is telling the story through Big modern hospital and small hospital in rural….same plot and same events. Meaning that this is the most ironic film toward Thai health organization. The relationship between doctor and patients is more than duty in countryside. For example, 1. Monk gives doctor a her medicine and the doctor says she’ll try it. 2. The janitor owns doctor. 3. The patient can fall in love with the doctor. 4. The long intimate conversation between the monk and dentist. In contrast, same event happening in big hospital is cold and surrounded by neon lights. Totally different from small hospital. The same event when monk tries to give herb medicine to the doctor but the doctor think it’s kinda nonsense. or the scene when the dentist covers the monk’s face and the monk repeatedly put it back. And they don’t even talk to each other. Back to the relationship in the story, there’s a scene when the monk talks about his past lives. If you’re Apichartpong’s fan, you will notice that most of his movies are about the past lives.

In addition, the beliefs, glow in the dark orchids and past lives are not only opposite to the big hospital, industry and artificial legs and father statue but also blend into one another. However, Syndromes and A Century was censored due to the fact that gonna ruin Buddhism and Health Organization. Apichartpong decides not to release in Thailand. 4 scenes which was censored are 1. The monk playing guitar. 2. Doctor drinking while on duty. 3. Kissing scene and the boner. 4. The monk playing Frisbee. Nevertheless, Syndromes and A Century is my most favorite film so far. I love the singing part. It’s just so Thai!