Page 68 - Metro

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ing together apparently unrelated encounters into an overarch
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Tan’s /NO XD ZKLFK IROORZV WKH MRXUQH\ RI PLGGOH DJHG
architect Thana (Thaneth Warakulnukroh) and his childhood
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Thailand. While Thana and Popeye’s journey hit the familiar
narrative beats of the road movie, however, Tan’s screenplay
resolutely resists romanticising the open road.
That’s not to suggest /NO XD avoids the contemplative
rhythm found in the greats of its genre. To my eye, it most
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narrative, while nonetheless coalescing into something coher
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him, and the road stretching into the distance. /NO XD posits
that the meanings we impose on our personal histories are just For Thana, the elephant and town
as impermanent as the lines drawn on this road: fading into alike represent the nostalgic promise
oblivion, or replaced by fresh white paint after we’re gone. of abandoned youth, the possibilities
that filled his head as a young architect
– possibilities that now seem to be
Hero’s journey
decaying before his very eyes.
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loosely nonlinear structure, opens on the open road as Thana D SXGGOH KDORHG E\ %DQJNRNpV QLJKW WLPH QHRQ OLJKWV t EXW
and Popeye commence their long journey – but, certainly, the also shot with a sympathetic lens that evokes a distinctive
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satisfaction with his life. kit: ‘I wanted the elephant to be something that was true to
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of his legacy is palpable. ‘We were young and idealistic then,’ Thana and Popeye’s subsequent journey is framed as a
says Thana, while his boss nonchalantly observes that ‘the old quest for meaning, a path into Thana’s past that interrogates
has to make way for the new’. his future. This is all implicit – the architect explains the pur
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serves to emphasise Thana’s increasing irrelevance, whether (or if) he is remembered there.
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pleted without his presence – or at home, where he stumbles Helpers on the path
upon a vibrator barely concealed among his wife’s things.
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childhood ‘pet’ when it responds to an old song they once SLHFH :KHQ WKH\ DUULYH WKHVH ĻDVKEDFNV FHQWUH RQ 3RSH\H
shared. After buying Popeye – now named ‘Chang Beer’ – the discovery of the young elephant after Thana’s mother’s
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the nostalgic promise of abandoned youth, the possibilities It’s clear that, in part, this is a formal strategy used to keep
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seem to be decaying before his very eyes. VLV RQ ZKHUH 7KDQD LV JRLQJ ZH DWWHQG WR WKH SDUWLFXODUV RI KLV
Tan and director of photography Chananun Chotrungroj de encounters on the road – again aided by Tan and Chotrungroj’s
pict Popeye with a soft, wistful gaze. The elephant is presented humanistic camerawork – rather than anticipating the destina
DV DQ LFRQ t PHPRUDEO\ FDSWXUHG LQ WKH ĻHHWLQJ UHĻHFWLRQ RI tion. But it also suggests an act of denial on Thana’s part: he

66 • Metro Magazine 195 | © ATOM