A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

A truly meditative experience sure to leave you helplessly vulnerable into succumbing to eternal slumber as the soldiers in this film. That's a blessing and a curse for Cemetery of Splendor. But visually, this is a work of art. The colors light up the screen majestically. Everyone and everything in this film seems to be shifting in and out of a deep sleep. This is cinema in a catatonic state.

Without having known before, 20 minutes into the film I guessed that it was from the same director of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Weirdly, I didn't take to that film much. I appreciated it greatly, and I did get more out of it on my second viewing of it, but it still left me feeling very distant. I found this much more fixating and engrossing, even if the pace does get to me at times. It's amazingly directed and I think that carries it a long way, but it also benefited from being more grounded on a simple thematic level than Boonmee. Not for everyone, but definitely a film to watch out for. Not recommended for everyone, just for those who know exactly what they're getting into.

Such a beautiful film visually, but also because of it's humanity and compassion.From the opening scene, which is not a scene at all but a blank screen with no sound for over a minute, then there is sound, then there is light - an extremely mundane scene in an ordinary but beautiful landscape, our senses and conceptions are being manipulated and influenced. The opening frames the most basic theme in the movie to me: sound. For so much of the movie there is no dialogue but sound. Sight and sound: the natural ambient sound of whatever environment is being depicted at the moment. Your sub or subtle consciousness is constantly invited out. The beauty, aura, serenity and power of the mundane, even to the "ordinariness" of the people inhabiting this commonplace realm of dirt, backhoes, work, chickens, weeds, children, parks, shrines, struggle, etc ... , penetrates. The juxtaposition and contradiction of the surreal sleeping soldiers and the world of Kings and Emperors at war they inhabit as they sleep, highlight the depth of the day to day ordinary. Here, the commonplace is just lived, with longing and bewilderment, automatically deferring to the greatness of that other world in the numerous ways it manifests, but more majestic and profound than anything the other-world has to offer. I guess it's not too profound to observe the symbolism of the soldiers living in a dreamworld of exalted beings and affairs, but asleep in this one.The emphasis on the senses, ambiance, atmosphere stays with you. When I left the theater, I stood in front for at least 30 minutes not walking or talking, but just observing the world anew, but especially 'listening.' It was like coming out of a week long silent meditation retreat where one's senses are so highly attuned and all the gates of perception seem open and new.The everyday people of the world depicted here are sad, and see themselves as insignificant and lowly. And, it's sad they don't realize, as this movie shows us, they are everything!

I didn't vote for this movie with a lots of scores since it's not a movie suitable for all the people. I didn't mean there are some limited level stuff, but just not all the people can understand or just have the patience to understand the materials and the message this movie would want us to see. Well, frankly speaking, for this director, this movie is already easy and simple enough. Because this director really enjoy to tell a story in this kind of way and created an atmosphere mixed with both mystery and holy stuff. I think there just one part I would like to say and hope it is not count as spoiler. At the end of the movie , when the Keng and the old lady sit on the chair and Kend was licking her leg. My understanding about that is the spirit of the lady is already gone , which replaced by the Keng's spirit. And Keng's body is filled by the spirit of the man laying on the bed. They have some love issues with each other an that is why they are licking each other. That is just my perspective, hope people could understand and just take that as a comments .