Why the supernatural doesn't quite work in Uncle Boonmee

Why is it that I'm reading a Japanesenovel about an 60ish man who is facing intimations of his own death (Sound of the Mountain) and also find myself last night watching a Thai movie about a 60ish man facing intimations of his death - don't read anything into that, please! I feel great! But something last night drew me to watch "Uncle Boonmee ho can recall his past lives," a very unusual movie that got some really strong reviews. What can I say? Best Thai movie I've seen this year? Among the pluses, some very beautiful scenes of the Thai countryside and some truly haunting sequences when ghosts come alive - not only to Uncle Boonmee but also to his caregiver and his relatives, who have come to see him in what may be his last days. When the ghost of his long-dead wife, and then of his lost son, who has been transformed into a werewolf-like monkey god, with bright red eyes, show up at the dinner table on the veranda, at night - it's truly a spectacular sequence. Other good sequences include a wealthy woman or princess, being carried on one of the chairs on poles perhaps to her wedding, stops by a pond and is seduced by - a catfish! Strange indeed. Could have been a really good movie - except that the filmmaker takes very little care in introducing the characters so that from beginning to end I was unsure of who was who and what was happening to whom. Mystery and the supernatural is fine in a movie - think of the great Pan's Labyrinth, for example - but to make the supernatural work you need to also pay attention to the natural world and make it credible and clear. Also, the acting is wooden - actors seem to be amateurs, learning their lines - and the pace is glacial, many scenes could have been more effective at half the length. One interesting sidelight is the xenophobia some of the Thai characters express toward the Lao neighbors - coming into Thailand illegally, taking away jobs, and so on - all sounding so painfully familiar to the racist rhetoric we hear in the U.S. today.