Disc Reviews

The Rocket Review

• 30th Jun 2014

There has been something of a rise on the international stage of South East Asian cinema. 10 years ago there was the hugely popular martial-arts Ong-Bak films, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s wonderfully magical Uncle Bonomee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) that proved itself to be very popular on the festival circuit that was also a winner at Cannes and such cult films as Tears of the Black Tiger (2000). The Rocket is a redemptive film that focuses on a boy, reminiscent of such classics as Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (1955). (For those who’ve never seen it – do, you don’t know what you’re missing.)

The story opens with the birth of the hero of the story – Ahlo. He is born in a rural part of Laos, but he is the first of twins; his brother is a stillborn. According to local custom twins can bring bad luck. Ahlo’s grandmother encourages the new mother to kill the child according to custom, but the mother refuses and pleads that she not to tell her husband. As Ahlo grows up it would on the surface appear that the old lady was right – Ahlo does bring bad luck. As fate would further have it the whole family are evicted from their homes by developers who wish to build a second dam in the area. In one magical moment, giving some indication of the feast of visual imagery in the film, Ahlo swims in the lake over the ruins of an underwater previous village – a magical almost surreal moment as though from a Chagall painting. The family are promised a re-location to newer dwellings but when they get there they find shacks worse than the ones they had come from. On the journey tragedy strikes the family further only adding fuel to the grandmother’s beliefs. Once at the new place Ahlo befriends a young girl with equally tragic circumstances and an uncle, affectionately known as Uncle Purple because of his purple suit and James Brown obsession. Uncle Purple is mentally damaged following the wars from years before when he was helped by the Americans but teaches Ahlo about the local unexploded ordnance and the ways of war. This proves to be a redemptive relationship for both.

As mentioned earlier, The Rocket has much in common with Pather Panchali, not least of all the maturing and growing of a boy born in the jungle and learning to survive using his own cheeky temerity but all the while the world is seen through his eyes. This new film does stop short on delivering the goods of the old Indian film but never the less is hugely rewarding with an equal measure of magical imagery and realism about the harshness of the lives the boy is growing up in. The film ends with an outstanding climax and is heart-warming to boot. An award winner and hailed on the festival circuit earlier this year including awards at this year’s Berlin Film Festival The Rocket comes highly recommended.

Chris Hick