Conference Proceedings
Tropical Malady: Film & the Question of the Uncanny Human-Animal
Barbara Creed
eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics | James Cook University | Published : 2011
Abstract
The acclaimed Thai film, Tropical Malady (2004), represents the tropics as a surreal place where conscious and unconscious are as inextricably entwined. Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tropical Malady presents two interconnected stories: one a quirky gay love story; the other a strange disconnected narrative about a shape-shifting shaman, a man-beast and a ghostly tiger. This paper will argue that from it beginnings in the silent period, the cinema has created an uncanny zone of tropicality where human andanimal merge.