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Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages No film proved more restorative to the senses than Syndromes and a Century... For its first half, the film is awash in the natural sounds and tree-filtered light shading a rural clinic: It's a summer picnic of a movie that beckons outside. Philadelphia City Paper Just as surprising an entertainment was Syndromes and a Century is esteemed among cinephiles for cryptic, sensual works like last year's Tropical Malady, but Syndromes is something different, a shot of pure filmmaking joy. Loosely inspired by his parents' memories of working in hospitals as young doctors, Syndromes is a loose skein of tongue-in-cheek vignettes, shot through with the abstract weirdness of everyday life. There's a singing dentist, a Buddhist monk who dreams of being a DJ and a mysterious room full of smoke and half-finished prosthetic limbs. While recurring themes (one of which is recurrence itself) are easy enough to extract, the movie as a whole will likely require further viewings to reveal all its secrets. But you certainly don't have to understand it to enjoy it. Time Out London In fact the most adventurous filmmaking all seemed to come out of Asia, most notably Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 'Syndromes and A Century' and Tsai Ming-Liang's 'I Don't Want to Sleep Alone', both part of the Mozart anniversary series New Crowned Hope. Salon.com (Stephanie Zacharek) "This is such a gentle, delicate picture -- it's based on Joe's parents' recollections of their own early courtship -- that at moments, I felt as if it were slipping through my hands like water. But a full day after seeing it, I'm finding that its rippling multiple storylines -- there's a singing dentist who befriends a young monk, and a beautiful young doctor who inches tentatively toward love -- are still reshaping themselves in my mind. "Syndromes and a Century" is beguiling and confounding, and I hope to see it again soon: When I do, I suspect I'll understand it even less and yet love it more. That's the difference between a movie with a mystery in its heart, and one whose mystery is a gimmick you can take to market." Vue Weekly (Josef Braun) "One of the most beautiful and evocative films I've seen at the 31st Toronto International Film Festival." |
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Guardian UK (Peter Bradshaw) "The weird-and-wonderful vote goes to the cult Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His new film, Syndromes and a Century, is the story of shy love in a provincial hospital in Thailand. Or is it?" EYE Weekly (Jason Anderson) 4 stars - "The Thai director of such past wonders as Blissfully Yours and Tropical Malady returns with his most puzzling yet arguably most delightful film to date... There are monks and songs and orchids and prosthetic legs -- it's all magical, beautiful and deeply, deeply odd." Variety (Leslie Felperin) "teeters just on the edge of abstraction, especially given the helmer's fondness for holding for long, beautifully composed takes that drink in sun-dappled landscapes, corridors and statues...casts a witchy kind of spell with its deep-breath pacing and undertow of unspecified malaise." LA Weekly
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