Shot in the Lao nation, Kimi Takesue’s distinctive documentary contemplates sights and vistas that would not be out of place on tourist brochures. Minimal in its camera movements, the film examines shimmering temples of gold, falls tumbling down silver rocks, and lines of Buddhist monks moving through lush landscapes. It also highlights what is absent from polished advertisements, namely the intrusion of tourists.
The interruption to the local rhythm of life is at once visual and aural: we see throngs of wandering visitors, their informal attire of shorts and T-shirts a stark contrast to the historic structures. Their occasionally rowdy recreational pursuits are intercut with more mundane moments from the daily routines of residents, like schoolchildren heading to class or women presenting offerings to monks by the roadside.
An Underlying Friction Between the Static Camera and Motion
There’s a sense of tension between the unmoving shot and the actions that occur within the frame. Scenes of tourists being herded onto buses recall Jacques Tati’s 1967 classic Playtime, which gently pokes fun at the idea of an genuine local encounter attained via commercial tourism. The perspective in Takesue’s film, however, is on less firm footing.
Some of the cinematic contrasts veer towards reiterating well-worn binaries between Eastern and Western cultures, the local and international. For instance, the majority of the tourists seen in Onlookers are Caucasian; actually, visitors to Laos predominantly arrive from nearby Asian nations. Likewise, the Laotian population is also not at all uniform: one sequence shows men of a certain age playing a game of catch, with a title card telling us they are “arguing in Lao” – yet some of them are using Vietnamese language.
The film does provoke some interesting questions about the dynamic between the travel sector and cinema, even if it has few novel or profound insight into both subjects.
Onlookers is available on True Story from 5 December.
