Last Life in the Universe

Kenji works in a Japanese library in Bangkok. His flat is immaculately ordered and he keeps trying ways to kill himself; each attempt is interrupted by something. One day he and Noi meet on a bridge. She is his opposite: her house is a mess, her life is a mess, and she has just lost her sister. Neither properly speaks the other's language, and they begin living in the same house. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang directs. Tadanobu Asano plays Kenji and Sinitta Boonyasak plays Noi. Christopher Doyle is the cinematographer. Known for the Wong Kar-wai films, he works entirely differently here: the camera barely moves, the frames are symmetrical, the colour is cold. The language is a curious mixture. The characters move between Japanese, Thai and English and share none of them fully; the understanding is built on habit rather than on words. It screened at the 2003 Venice film festival, where Tadanobu Asano was given an award for his performance. The narrative does not run straight. Some scenes are seen twice, differently, and the film does not say which is the real one. Who it is for: viewers who like slow Asian cinema and films built on solitude. Who it is not for: almost nothing happens, the dialogue is sparse, and the ending is left unresolved.