the beach

what better to do on a cold rainy night in shanghai than watch a movie about a much warmer place, the beach. was the first time i saw it since it was released about 5 years ago and i liked it much better this time around.

the movie was directed by danny boyle of trainspotting fame- and one can definitely see it in the music, monologues about the quirks of human nature, the cut into surrealism, and so on. i read on imdb that ewan mcgregor was originally cast for the role of richard but the studio overruled boyle. mcgregor may have been a better fit for the part, but it's likely the movie wouldn't have done very well in america (or worse than it did) without any american actors.

the plot is about a secret beach (filmed at maya beach, on koh phi phi le) 'discovered' by backpackers who build a community there and hide the secret from other backpackers. one of the residents goes mad and gives richard a map to the beach in bangkok shortly before committing suicide. the story follows richard's journey to the beach and what happens to him thereafter.

the problem with the movie is the community- it seems far too contrived to be realistic and the only person in the movie who seems to be fairly stable is étienne, so there's not much one can relate to with the characters. there's a 'losing the plot' theme to the movie, with more than a couple of direct references to apocolypse now but no war to provide the backdrop to madness, only sal's defending of the community above all costs.

still, an enjoyable movie to watch provided one isn't looking for any deep meaning. also has some beautiful scenery that made me miss thailand very much. i found that i could now understand much of what the thai actors were saying in the movie, such as 'i kai, chip hai le meung!!!' from the farmer 'boss' to the other farmer when the first of the four intruders is shot.

there's a story to be made out there about what attracts people to se asia- the beach portrayed a small piece of that (the beauty) and hopefully someone will dive deeper into the subject in the future and capture what makes the region so addictive. of course that will result in, as daffy in the movie put it, more 'viruses' and 'cancer' spreading to asia but that's always the price of spreading the news.

* * * * * (edited 2/21) * * * * *

was thinking back to the movie and remembered that the map to the beach that richard received from daffy showed the location being islands to the west of koh phangan, not phi phi where the movie was filmed.

a little googling for maps showed that the islands are part of the ang thong national park group. i wondered if some full-mooners would have tried to follow the map in the movie to an island there on which, like the movie, camping is forbidden. to my amazement i found that a while ago there actually *was* a community of travelers staying on ang thong- they were the inspiration for alex garland's book.

on ang thong's koh mae there is even a hidden saltwater lake, only reachable after a 45 minute hike and squeezing through a small opening. the original community has long-since moved to koh phangan (hmmm wonder if their visas are still in order!) but still interesting that there is a real-life counterpart to the beach in the movie.