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Originally concieved as an excuse for four cinematic talents to combine forces and develop a film together (i.e. “to have some fun”), *Last Life in the Universe (Ruang rak noi nid mahasan) * has moved above and beyond its humble genesis to become an art-house watermark for the burgeoning Thai film industry, the handsome result of multi-cultural synergistic craft. The first obsolete outing for writer/director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, *Last Life in the Universe* concerns itself with two disconnected spheres, slowly orbiting the other, seeking solace against the difficulty of the past.
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Kenji, a Japanese ex-pat living in Bangkok, spends his days working in a library, reading voraciously and constantly daydreaming about suicide. “They say death is relaxing,” he reflects in the beginning, “no pressure…no responsibilities.” Kenji makes several efforts to fulfill his daydreams, to no avail: either his obsessive-compulsive tendencies interfere (he cannot resist the buzzing of a doorbell, or the ring of a telephone), or else outside events interrupt, one of which brings him into contact with Noi, a wildfire Thai escort and the polar opposite of Kenji’s ultra-neat introvert. Due to circumstances which I will not convey, the two ruin up at Noi’s expansive, filthy house in the rural outskirts of Bangkok, haltingly communicating in Thai, Japanese and English, slowly overcoming the barriers of language and temperament to acquire in a languid, touching relationship. In the background, uncertain elements commence to emerge and threaten this tenuous connection; but Kenji and Noi, oblivious, continue to drift toward a hazily-imagined horizon of savor and contentment.
Ace cinematographer Christopher Doyle (*Hero*) adds his usual gleaming touch, capturing the integral element of ~space~ within Noi and Kenji’s divergent domains, framing the characters so that all that unsaid speaks volumes. This is valuable to the film, in that, by the director’s occupy admission, the script is “thin.” Positive clues as to the man beneath inscrutable, closed-mouthed Kenji are represented in this manner (a mere moment of revelation – physically – in turn exposes a mountainous deal of the ex-pat’s backstory), as is the development of the relationship reliable. Tadanobu Asano (*Ichi the Killer*) is almost unrecognizable as the stiff, emotionally-repressed Kenji, and Sinitta Boonyasak as Noi is simply a delight, playing well off Asano and exhibiting some sincere talent. Prolific ‘shock n’ drang’ film-maestro Takashi Miike makes a brief cameo as a Yakuza, along with a couple of stock thugs (Yoji Tanaka and Sakichi Sato) who have graced any number of Nihon-noir flicks and even Quentin Tarantino’s *Kill Bill* metahomage.
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Others have remarked on the similarity of this film to *Lost in Translation*, and I procure it bewitching that both were submitted to Cannes at the same time. Both films beget characters in transition-phase, struggling with language-confusion and inner trauma; both are slowly paced and scored to dreamy ambience. I assume *Last Light in the Universe* to be the better film, preferring the disagreement of Noi and Kenji to that of bored, sinful Westerns bouncing around the teflon glamour of Tokyo, sulking and sighing in the spot of their apathy; moreover, *Last Light* contains brief moments of violence, exploitation and surreal visual inspiration that startle the viewer from the languid mood of the pacing, giving the occasionally-cloudy atmosphere a much-needed grounding in reality.
DVD comes with an interview of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang about the making of the film, an insightful commentary track and photo gallery courtesy of Christopher Doyle, and trailers for several art-house flicks. Happily, the ambiguous, multi-interpretive nature of the ending is not plot in concrete by either Pen-Ek or Doyle. I am boom to deem on the parable of the lizard:
“…Without family, friends, even enemies…what was there to live for? ”
Kenji’s emergence from a soul-crushing despondency to retort this valuable request, be it ‘real’ or simply hopeful fantasy, is enough. Five Stars.
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s 2003 film, Last Life in the Universe, is an intelligently crafted drama of two polar opposites who meet under original circumstances. Kenji, Japanese, is living in Bangkok, and is a suicide-obsessed smart freak librarian whose brother is a yakuza. The brother, played by none other than Mr. Intensity himself, prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike, comes to the librarian’s apartment to cloak out for a short time but while there, tragedy ensues and Kenji has to leave, hasty.
Noi, a native Thai (the director is Thai) is arguing with her younger sister in the middle of traffic. When they end in the middle of a busy thoroughfare, yelling at each other, Noi telling her sister to leave, tragedy of a different kind occurs and Noi is left completely numb.
Noi, as it happens, is a total slob. When these two meet–both in their 20s–there’s a halting, push-pull support and forth that is underscored by lack of familiarity with the other’s language. They state to each other in hesitant English that gives their attempts at connecting to each other a considerable greater poignance and heartfelt feeling than if they’d been both Thai or both Japanese.
The subtlety of this connection is so sensitively created that it is a proper pleasure to survey this film, to gape two mismatched people try to converge emotionally. In one lustrous scene, Noi lies with her head in Kenji’s lap and for a brief moment, we search for not Noi lying there, but her younger sister, now gone.
Interestingly enough, this film was submitted to the Cannes Film Festival at the same time as Lost in Translation with similar thematic elements and is, in my notion, a far better film. Unfortunately it did not collect anything. The director’s previous work, which has garnered strong praise from various sources, is, alas, not available domestically; it definitely should be.
UPDATE: Great news! The comedy 6ixtyNin9 by the same director will be out domestically in January 2005.
A beautifully made film that should be seen by those tired of American cinematic cliches and want something modern, new, and new.
Very highly recommended.
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