Original title: เรื่องรัก น้อยนิด มหาศาล
Year: 2003
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Runtime: 112 minutes
Country: Thailand
Language: Thai, Japanese, English with English subtitles
Rating: M18

Awards

FIPRESCI PRIZE
Bangkok International Film Festival 2003

UPSTREAM PRIZE FOR BEST ACTOR (TADANOBU ASANO)
Venice Film Festival 2003

Synopsis

Kenji (Tadanobu Asano), a suicidal, obsessively compulsive Japanese librarian is forced to lie low in Bangkok when a mishap with the Yakuza puts a target on his back. Unexpectedly, he forms a bond with the free-spirited bar hostess Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak) after a series of unconnected accidents which put him back on the Yakuza’s radar and lead him to the scene of her sister’s death. With nowhere to go, Kenji retreats to Noi’s beachside home for an awkward 3 days, where the mismatched pair, who can barely speak each other’s language, bond over their shared sadness.

Last Life in the Universe provided a change of pace for Pen-Ek Ratanaruang from his prior dark crime comedies, replacing his gritty textures with something more wistful and melancholic. To help facilitate this shift, Ratanaruang worked with two figures who defined the look and feel of early 2000s Asian cinema: cinematographer Christopher Doyle, known for his dreamy collaborations with Wong Kar-Wai, and actor Tadanobu Asano, who consciously plays against his iconic role in Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer. This all adds up to a tender exploration of loneliness in the modern age, where the unsaid and unexplained can be more meaningful than knowing the full picture.

This film is part of the programme Y2K Dreamz. The full programme for Y2K DreamZ can be found here.

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