Blissfully Yours

Apichatpong on Blissfully Yours

The idea for Blissfully Yours was inspired by an incident that occurred in 1998 while I was shooting my previous film at a downtown zoo in Bangkok. A policeman handcuffed two teenage women and threw them into a police car. I eventually learned that they were illegal Burmese immigrants. This was not an uncommon incident. It is an aspect of living in Thailand that many people face.

However, even with all the uncertainty and hardship they have to endure, their lives cannot be completely in the dark. There must be some light passing through, no matter how imperceptible to others. Did the Burmese women enjoy the zoo as much as the other people there, before they were captured that afternoon? This question was the inspiration for Blissfully Yours – the idea of moments of happiness existing in an oppressive environment, the idea of the coexistence of lightness and darkness, of pleasure and suffering.

So I have cast the sun as my main character in this film. It is the primary source of energy for life, and at the same time, of destruction. It affects all the individuals in the story (a man’s mysterious sunburn, the relentless heat), and can be viewed as an invisible oppressive force around this area on the Thai-Burmese border. The second character is the jungle, which confines the protagonists despite their desire to find freedom there. In this story, I have chosen not to dwell on the political issues of the Thai-Burmese border, but to focus on mundane and futile activities, which in themselves carry an underlying political message.

The shooting went incredibly smoothly until we approached the second half of the film. It was shot in the deep jungle of Khao Yai national park, one of the most pristine forest reserves in Thailand. For a production team, it was like a remote training camp with relentless heat. It was impossible to bring in a power generator and so we depended solely on natural light. There were many days when we just trekked into the jungle and waited for the sun. One day, in Thai tradition, we gave offerings (a pig’s head and a bottle of liquor) to a forest goddess. And, in exchange, she gave us the sun.

A few days after the last scene was shot, the setting was destroyed by a big flood. A large tree in the background plunged into the water and the stream turned muddy. We again thanked the forest goddess for allowing us enough sun to capture the beautiful images in our film.


Contents
Essay

Apichatpong on Blissfully Yours

Film Reviews

New York Times
Village Voice
Time Out
EYE weekly

DVD Reviews

Time Out
Sight and Sound
DVD Times
Film Comment

Connections

Green Cine – Apichatpong in conversation with Jonathan Marlow
Guardian Unlimited
Senses of Cinema
Reverse Shot – Apichatpong in conversation with Michael Koresky
Kick the Machine

Awards

2002 Cannes Film Festival / Best Film ‘Un Certain Regard’
2003 Rotterdam Film Festival / KNF Award
2003 Buenos Aires Film Festival / Best Director and FIPRESCI Prize
2002 AFI Festival / Nominated - Grand Jury Prize
2002 Thessaloniki Film Festival / Winner Golden Alexander


Disc Info

Blissfully Yours Boxshot

Thailand 2002
Main Feature: 122 minutes
Special Feature: 9 minutes
Certificate: 18
Colour 1.66:1 16x9 Enhanced
Language: Thai/Burmese
Subtitles: English On/Off
PAL R0 RRP: £12.99
Release Date: 1st May 2006

buy

Home Browse The Collection Coming Soon About Second Run Shop Contact Us/Mailing List