Tropical Malady (2004)

Love is the drug, a game for two and, in the otherworldly new Thai film "Tropical Malady," unabashedly strange.

It's a safe bet that "Tropical Malady" looks like nothing you've seen before, and that is a very good thing.

The 2003 film Tropical Malady, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, depicts a romance between a Thai army soldier and a local small-town boy.

His 2004 Sud Pralad (Tropical Malady) won a Jury Prize from the same festival.

Tropical Malady (2004) dir.

The two young men whose delicate romance dominates the first half of "Tropical Malady" consummate their affection by licking each other's hands.

"Tropical Malady" was shown as part of last year's New York Film Festival.

Set in contemporary Thailand, "Tropical Malady" opens with soldiers taking photographs of one another in a field.