2019’s The Long Walk (not to be confused with the brand new Stephen King movie of the same name) doesn’t receive nearly enough praise. Billed as a drama/horror, the Laos-made feature is a startlingly beautiful meditation on death and regret. With a script written by Christopher Larsen, the film sees director Mattie Do heightening the […]
2019’s The Long Walk (not to be confused with the brand new Stephen King movie of the same name) doesn’t receive nearly enough praise. Billed as a drama/horror, the Laos-made feature is a startlingly beautiful meditation on death and regret. With a script written by Christopher Larsen, the film sees director Mattie Do heightening the material with stunning camera work and acting performances that squeeze the heart. In her third full-length, Do delivers one of the most evocative ghost stories in cinema history. She gives thoughtful attention to the unimaginable loss of a loved one and the desperation to fix the past – leaving an indelible imprint on the viewer.
Set sometime in the future, when people live with government-issued, electronic implants in their arms, The Long Walk forages through the darkest parts of the human experience. An elderly farmer (Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy) still struggles to cope with the death of his mother (Chanthamone Inoudome) when he was just a child (Por Silatsa). The tragic moment informed a lifetime of bad decisions that have led to impenetrable loneliness. He continues living in his childhood home, where he’s surrounded by the constant memory of her death, and scrapes together copper wire and other bike parts to make ends meet. His life remains stagnant, forever trapped 50 years ago, and finds him on the precipice of regret and shame.
The only friend he has is the spirit of a young woman who wanders the same strip of dirt road day in and day out. Her ability to time-travel serves him well, as he returns to his youth in an attempt to save his ailing mother. With an abusive father, who later abandons them for the city, the young boy carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s mature beyond his years, helping his mother sell vegetables on the side of the road and tending to her every need. In his spare time, he accompanies the mysterious apparition on her continuous path and eventually meets the older version of himself. The old man initially appears on the fringes of the past, watching his family move about their days of poverty and sacrifice from afar.