Country: Thailand
Genre: Comedy/ Drama/ Art
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Year: 1999
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
NOT WORTH YOUR TIME
From the very first frames of Invisible Waves, director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang exhibits an extraordinarily strong authorial presence. The compositions are architectural in their discipline. The color palette is gray and green, with the occasional splash of color, usually a dull red. Ratanaruang persists in casting the homeliest Asian women on the planet, pasty white with vaguely European features and slack body tone.
At the same time, Invisible Waves is a huge contrast with his previous feature that I saw, 6ixtynin9. That one was Tarantino-esque and loaded with plot. For the first hour of Invisible Waves, nothing much seems to happen.
Kyoji (Tadanobu Asano), a Japanese chef living in Hong Kong, is sent by his boss (Toon Hiranyasap) to Phuket for vacation. The minute Kyoji steps on the cruise liner to Phuket, it seems like the universe wants to fuck with his head. The shower head in his room goes off for no reason, soaking him. When he plugs in a hair dryer, it blows a fuse and all the lights go out. Someone locks him in his room. He meets a woman, Noi (Hye-jeong Kang), who promptly saddles him with her baby while she takes a swim. And the indignities just mount and mount. As I said, this goes on for a solid hour or more.
But have no fear. A plot does kick in. Eventually, everything makes sense.
Is it worth it? For most people, the answer will be no.
I laughed at some of the existential comedy. The source of the humor is that no matter how messed up things get, Kyoji never loses his temper.
But most folks with be impatient with the deliberately glacial pace. They’ll have no patience for the surreal humor. They won’t appreciate that the plot could be disposed of in 20 minutes. And they’ll absolutely hate the resolution.
Even I wasn’t satisfied, although I was definitely intrigued by the unique tone of the picture. Even though I didn’t much like Invisible Waves, it hasn’t diminished my enthusiasm for director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. Very few filmmakers strive to create such authentic and individualistic works. I applaud Ratanaruang’s intentions, if not necessarily his results.
