36 (2012)

A picture is worth a thousand words, or is it?

If you are not old enough to remember rolls of film, one of the commonly used rolls had 36 shots on it. This film was told in 36 segments based largely on camera shots or the memories from those shots as if labeling a picture or a memory. The film leisurely and gently explored the relevancy between photos and memories and the malleability and impermanence of both.

Sai is a film location scout and Oom is the art director. They meet scouting out an abandoned love hotel from the Vietnam War era that Sai has memories of being in her old neighborhood. Sai uses a digital camera, taking many pictures that she will later store and keep. Oom still uses a film camera and often takes pictures of people when they aren't looking even though he refuses to have his picture taken. Though he says he will send them a copy, he rarely does. The two spend a lot of time discovering the nooks and crannies of the possible set and also negotiate with the landlady over room prices for the cast and crew. Oom takes a picture of Gita, the landlady's 12-year-old daughter that later may prove important. Afterwards, Sai and Oom enjoy an evening breeze from the roof and take their picture with her camera in front of the beautiful sky. Soon the "end credits" appear after the 11th shot.

The film jumps into the future 2 years. Sai and Oom have gone their separate ways. When the director she is currently working for discovers the building he built his new script around has been leveled, Sai mentions the other building. She attempts to recover the photos but even after a friend works to restore them, only a few survived and not the one of her and Oom on the rooftop. She returns to the building and talks to the landlady. It turns out Gita died and the landlady would love to have the picture Oom took of her. During the process of trying to find Oom and restore the pictures, she realizes her feelings for him were stronger than she had known. As the film closes in on the 36th segment, Oom looks at the picture of them on the roof faraway on his computer (unknown to her he had copied her images from the shoot long ago), Sai smiles as she remembers the special moment they shared.

36 was shot in an artful way that could also distance the viewer from the characters. Oom is never seen face on, and often shots of other characters were in profile or from behind or even half hidden by architecture. I liked the labeled 36 bits of the story, like looking at a picture album where the photo had been annotated and saved. The OST was also lovely, I especially enjoyed the piano music.

Just as film cameras have mostly transitioned over to digital cameras so are most movies now shot with digital film. The danger of digital film was also addressed in that backups are necessary, because once a disk or other device has been damaged the pictures are likely lost for good. Her friend Kai mentioned how many people brought hard drives to be fixed saying they needed them immediately, but instead never returned for them. A drawerful of memories lay untouched. For one reluctant woman who came to pick hers up, he offered to erase those memories.

Which is more important? To see a bird or to take a picture of it? To experience the person you are with, or only the relative engagement of photos? The argument is made for both the value of the human experience and memory as well as the memories that are brought back by glancing at a photo. For the director whose childhood building was destroyed a picture is all that is left of it and his memories. Ironically, at the end of the movie, Oom who always valued the human experience more is found looking at Sai's picture and reminiscing. Conversely, Sai goes back to the place they shared and the memory floods her mind as she gazes fondly to where they had been together. Memory is a fragile, fading construct of the mind, subject to change. While memories are important, photos help to shore up the time and events. Buildings crumble, people die, digital photos can be erased, photos fade and relationships shatter, 36 touched on the concept of impermanence as well. There comes a time when no one remembers the people or places in the pictures.

While I enjoyed this film, it also failed to emotionally capture me with the relationships involved. The ending was meaningful to the arguments of photo or memory, but it left a hole in the picture I had hoped to find. I was hoping for a 37th epilogue image or a new roll of film to begin. This is a very slow, artful movie, more philosophical than touching. Yet for its shortcomings I did find it engaging. If this genre is of interest to you, it would be well worth trying.

5/23/23

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