Mysterious Object at Noon (1999)
Weerasethakul’s feature-making debut is a dreamlike 16mm documentary that journeys from Bangkok’s city roads to the rich Thai countryside. The seeds for his experimental narrative style are planted immediately: a series of vignettes chart the illogical tale of a crippled boy and his teacher, as told by a succession of rural villagers who continue the unwritten tale as they see fit.
Seamlessly merging black and white documentary footage with staged fiction,
Mysterious Object at Noon instantaneously turns odd, as it becomes evident that the film’s storytellers have no knowledge of the events that had preceded their own chapter.