In compliance to the fractured nature (no pun intended) of the film and its themes, I will share some brief and scattered thoughts on various aspects of the film instead of a sequential article.

~ The opening sequence is one of Lav Diaz's very bests: two stationary shots of rural landscapes; a hazy low-FPS moving shot; and a shot of a naked woman who appears to be dead, pretending to be dead, sleeping, pretending to be sleeping, posing for a painter, cold etc at the same time. This anti-structure of material image, phantom image and afterimage occurs throughout in randomized permutations: nuances on the theme of calamity.

~ Diaz shows equal proficiency in using sounds to hint at undercurrent events; for instance, the first hour is filled with multiple channels of omniscraping windshrieks, like pressurized decapitations of large mammals at random (or is it the elemental dwarves as the film mentions?). These onslaughts subside at the end of a particular phantom image (Benjamin Agusan recalling "Teresa and I waited and waited for mother, but she never came back"), when the soarings of the wind take a more obtuse shape and it becomes apparent that Diaz has been traversing the threads of Filipino lives being teared apart by cruel circumstances and that we had been strolling over the grounds under which thousands were buried alive.

~ Diaz is known for keeping his films free of any overdubbing. However, here he applies brittle chime-drones (to material images), transmissions from destroyed/buried radios (to phantom images) and thin smudges of death industrial (to afterimages), although done very sporadically and elusively.

~ The scenes in Zagreb, Croatia seem to allude to the muted scenes in Florentina Hubaldo CTE; faint almost inaudible and disjointed noises, unfocused camera and ominous atmospheres spawning stillborn silhouettes of the city.

~ The insane women in Diaz films apprently signifies the Filipino psyche damaged by centuries of oppression; however I think the scenes with the insane women do not mix well with main events when introduced as sub-plots (Evolution of A Filipino Family, From What is Before, Death in the Land of Encantos etc). They do not kill the flow entirely, but they are still quite a chore to sit through. Florentina Hubaldo CTE was successful in executing this theme because the insane woman was the principal focus there. Melancholia took a more unique approach, showing mental patients writing poetry and eating the papers afterwards.

~ I do not know any other actor that is as committed to their character as Perry Dizon. Two years or more has passed since I watched Melancholia and his performance there is still very fresh in my mind. Lee Kang-Sheng and Marcello Mastroianni finally have a withstandable contender.