2004 ‘ตามสายน้ำ’ Directed by Anucha Boonyawatana
Krit is openly gay, but his closest friend, Win, is questioning. As they grow older, their love is tested when the two finally explore their passion. Down the River is a daring exploration of friendship and intimacy.
Thailand
Thailand
The gentle butterfly loves a flower story, from the moment of obsession to the moment when the young man who is looking for a waterfall is completely empty, as if he has experienced a complete reincarnation of feelings, Anucha's film is full of Zen and poetry. Films from Thailand often are beautifully lyrical and transcendental, just the way I like them.
The allegory of the Three Realms of Buddhism can only be obtained by letting go. The so-called colorless world is a state of freedom that transcends the constraints of the material world. The end of the movie corresponds to the beginning of it. There are many close-ups of Krit's hands in the film, symbolizing love, and finally the water…
"If my love is unattainable, please let me die here."
I still need to rewatch Boonyawatana's Malila: The Farewell Flower but until then I will consider this as the most beautiful film from her body of works. It reminds me so much of Kieslowski's A Short Film About Love for its thesis on the futility of "true love," that such thing ceases to exist once it is reciprocated. As with her later films, Boonyawatana's spiritual symbolisms might be too abstract, but thankfully the brief runtime finds its metaphors perfectly laced throughout the film's 51-minute duration.
my life belonged to him.
Anucha the GOAT even at her debut. music & dialogue was perfectly heartbreaking and flowed naturally. spiritual symbolism and haunting mysticism is most significant to thai lgbt films..
I’m not the right type of person to watch this movie. This feels like so many sensitive gay college films from 1995-2010 where a sensitive kind-of-bitchy skinny gay boy is chasing after a closeted, possibly bisexual, or heterosexual suitor-to-be who is always threatening to leave the gay relationship for heterosexuality. And, so, the gay boy yearns bitchily.
Because this one is from Thailand, it’s filled with Buddhist imagery, flowers and nature with some Thai touches to the soundtrack. But, it’s the same plot and basic longingly romantic style that has always made me want to do something terribly unwholesome.
I came to this movie because I loved the director’s Lynchian The Blue Hour but this one had me shouting at the screen.
That said, if you love those sensitive gay sadboy coming of age stories, you’ll probably love this movie.
Down the River (2004) is atmospheric and mystical. The parallelism of Krit's unrequited affection for his best friend Win and of the merit-making hike in the dense forest to the waterfalls worked well and was beautifully constructed.
Beautiful debut feature. Subtle but atmospheric. It's one of those movies that is more 'felt' than anything, I think, like a poem. Though that always sounds kind of wanky and pretentious to say.
I liked the echoing of Krit releasing the flowers he'd kept pressed, the remembrances of his love for Win, into the waterfall when he finally reaches the top level, with them releasing the krathong at the end.
It's my understanding that you make a wish when releasing them, and it's about new beginnings, so I guess it's like he's let go of the wish he's had so long—for Win's love—and is finally ready to move on. But I could be way off base! Either way, I liked…
the parallels between taking the petals of flowers off his book that were initially meant to serve as a souvenir of every single memory he had of his best friend and dissolving these tormenting worldly attachments... it was cinema lads
