Hi-So (uncertificated) 102 mins ****
Aditya Assarat is the Thai
writer-director who caught eyes back in 2007 with his quietly stirring debut
Wonderful Town, about an architect dispatched to a region flattened by the
Asian tsunami. His third feature – its title short for “high society” – returns
to similar terrain, watching discreetly as a drifting actor (Ananda Everingham)
splits with his model girlfriend (Cerise Leang) while filming in a desolated
coastal resort. Assarat shares Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s ability to conjure
delicate moods and memories, but his interests reside in the concrete, rather
than spiritual: the semi-demolished apartment block the actor retreats to becomes
a particular source of fascination. It’s almost gallery-like in its resistance
to urgent narrative drives – anyone who finds Sofia Coppola movies wispy should
stay clear – yet if life, as they say, moves on, then here’s a film truly
attuned to its underlying rhythms: an oddly cleansing, even affirming
experience.
Hi-So opens in selected cinemas from today.
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