If
you ever book a ticket on Thailand’s rail system, make sure you have forty or
fifty baht in your pocket. That is because there are no shortage of hawkers
selling tasty sounding street food like fried peanuts, fermented pork, and pork
dumplings for a mere ten baht. Of course, most western tourists are up in first
class, where you can enjoy some fine dining during overnights. Sompot “Boat”
Chidgasornpongse documents the breadth and diversity of Thai society, as
reflected by the passengers of each and every line of the Thai railroad in Railway Sleepers (trailer here) which screens during this year’s First Look at the
Museum of the Moving Image.
There
is something soothing (or lulling) about rail travel, as the frequently dozing
passengers remind us. It is not called Railway
Sleepers for nothing. Chidgasornpongse is mostly content to observe,
offering commentary sparingly and obliquely, as when the aisles are suddenly patrolled
by heavily armed soldiers rather than fried peanut vendors.
We
clearly see passengers who are rich and poor, old and young, and Buddhist and
Muslim. Unfortunately, we just see them and rarely listen to them converse,
which is a shame, because they probably have a lot of interesting things to
say. In fact, that is why J.P. Sniadeki’s thematically similar The Iron Ministry was such a rich and
engaging viewing experience. It essentially immersed viewers in the
man-on-the-street opinions and concerns of a wide cross-section of Chinese
society. In contrast, Sleepers is
really about how the passengers relate to the train itself.
Still,
Chidgasornpongse has a keen eye for imagery and the involvement of his former
mentor-boss Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul is sure to spur interest on the
festival circuit. It does stimulate train-based nostalgia. If you went to
school in the Midwest, you maybe miss the sound of distant train whistles when
you’re turning in around 3:00 in the morning. Yet, it just doesn’t stimulate on
a social-intellectual level the way Iron
Ministry does (but, it should be granted that is a really good
documentary).
Those
who are admirers of the Sensory Ethnology Lab’s documentaries (which indeed
includes Ministry, as well as Sniadecki’s
Yumen and People’s Park) should definitely appreciate Railway Sleepers, but even Joe Weerasethakul fans might catch their
heads nodding. Best saved for an elite slow cinema-vérité audience, Railway Sleepers screens this Sunday
(1/14), as part of First Look 2018, at MoMI.