Last Life in the Universe by Pen Ek Ratanaruang (2003)
8 December 2007I saw this film because it was shot by my favorite cinematographer, the drunk and amazing Christopher Doyle, and it is certainly an interesting film, but very strange. Especially with 2 characters who can barely communicate, and an ending that gives clues, but does not give away much of anything. I think I may have gotten it, but I am not really sure. A stranger than strange film, and at a languid pace, with moments of insanity, I didn’t really know if what I was seeing was real or fake. I can’t honestly say that I really get it, or can even recommend it because it is just too out there. I am glad I saw it, but damn it was weird.
Kenji (Tadanobu Asano) is a lonely Japanese librarian living in Thailand, with a mysterious past, and dreams of suicide. His brother (Yutaka Matsushige) is a low level Yakuza, who made the mistake of sleeping with his bosses daughter. Kenji leaves a strange and lonely life, organizing his books, and leading a sterile existence. One day Kenji sees a beautiful Thai girl in a schoolgirl outfit named Nid (Laila Boonyasak), but he does talk to her in time, and she is gone. Kenji’s brother come to his place to hang out with his drinking buddy (Riki Takeuchi), but the buddy is there to kill him, and does kill the brother, but Kenji then kills him and then cleans up and leaves his place. He goes out to commit suicide on a bridge and that is just when Nid drives by with her sister Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak) and kicks Nid out because she slept with Nid’s boyfriend, but Nid sees Kenji and pauses in the rose and is hit and killed by a car.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER…
Kenji doesn’t want to go home, so he asks Noi if he go home with her, and she lets him. The place is a wreck. She doesn’t care and is moving to Japan on Monday, but he starts to clean, and strangely sees Nid in Noi often, but they continue to talk in broken English, and slowly he comes out of his shell, and she starts to heal from the wound of her sister dieing. Her sicko boyfriend doesn’t stop calling though, and eventually comes over and starts beeting Noi, but Kenji comes out and stops him and kicks him out.
She gives Kenji her car, and has her drive him to the airport. He gets her there and decides to go with her, but will go get his passport, and tells her to wait, but the boyfriend comes with a gun, and 3 Japanese gangsters and their is a shootout at his place. He makes it out, but then seems to be arrested by the police, and his whole back is tatooed so he is obviously a Yakuza as well.
We then see Noi in Japan, now with boy short cropped hair, and she has a visitor, and we see Kenji’s bag with his book, and she is elated, but then we see Kenji back in Thailand still at the police station.
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Very, very strange.