Touches You

To me, this movie is perfection.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This movie is about one specific elephant. The life of this elephant included street begging on the one hand; but on the other hand elephants in Buddhist Thailand have a sacred position within the Thai society. The elephant, such as the one in the movie, are considered to be the form of life the first Buddha (Sidhartha)had when through a dream was implanted into the womb of the mother. The role of the elephant is almost like the role of a sacred human being. The street elephant is a religious icon in the Thai Buddhist culture. At the same time the owner of the street elephant needs to make a living from this elephant. In a sense the elephant is like an art form, a heritage piece and a holy entity and a dirty rat at the same time - with no use in Modern day society and big city politics, globalization and capitalism. Lucky for this specific Asian type elephant, that through the filming of his life, the Royalty of Thailand inserted the elephant into a wild life sanctuary because otherwise the Thai family supporting the elephant and the elephant himself would have died in despair and utter poverty.

Obviously years in the making, this film covers a necessary and optimistic phenomenon of returning the wild to the wild. With a humanistic approach as to the impact on both the wild elephant and it's human keeper. Just a beautiful film. We get to follow the kind of life this captive elephant has been forced to live and the challenges of the human who cares for the elephant. Their partnership for the human's business, adds depth to the human side. The elephant's seeming willingness to cooperate for the enterprise, and the eventual release of the elephant back to the wild. The optimistic results of releasing the elephants back to the forest is uplifting.

When Elephants Were Young is an absolutely stunning film that captures the complex relationship between elephants and humans in Thailand. It takes you through an emotional journey of how we're connected to these magnificent creatures through the true story of Wok and his elephant Nong Mai as they walk the streets of Bangkok street begging. As we follow their story, the issues facing the survival of Asian elephants as a whole are addressed revealing the serious need for conservation. If you want to learn more about the plight of elephants in Thailand through the power of a true story, I can not recommend this movie enough. Anyone that watches it will feel a burning need to help the elephant conservation movement in any way possible.

This is a documentary film about the unique relationship between elephant and man in the Asian elephant industry. It exposed many conflicts that are currently occurring in Thailand with elephants. I felt happy,sad, and anger all throughout the movie which to me means that it was a movie while worth watching. I feel like I have learned so much more about elephant tourism in Asia that I would not have learned if I had never seen it. This is a great movie if you are contemplating whether or not to see elephants while traveling to Thailand. It lays out all the facts and provides insight.I highly recommend watching When Elephants Were Young.