last life

Saw Last Life In The Universe last evening. A Japanese-Thai co-production set in Bangkok with cinematography by Christopher Doyle.

In typical Doyle style, it was filled with longing shots. It was very still and simple and I have to admit a little slow moving but I thought it was not too bad. It doesn't warrant the five stars that Ong Sor Fern of Life! gave it though. I think I'd give it a 4 or 4.5 I'd have to think about it.

But anything's better than the usual Hollywood crap really and it's nice to not see a familiar face on screen from time to time.

Bangkok sure looked pretty dirty throughout the show. THere was tons of trash everywhere yet it made me want to go back! Of course the new cheap flights ($59) via AirAsia is mostly the reason...

Wait, I haven't really explained the movie yet. Kenji is a Japanese man living in Bangkok. he's a bit nuts really, obsessed with suicide, death by hanging, by bullet, by drowning it's all he thinks about. He works in a Japanese cultural centre and one day when contemplating jumping off a bridge he meet Nid, a Thai girl who works as an escort. She's had a major argument with her sister Noi who forced her out of the car along the busy highway. Kenji never really meets Nid, she gets knocked down by a car and dies.

But he does meet Noi and follows her back to her house, a sprawling bungalow strewn with rubbish. Used plates lie all around the house, the goldfish died a long time ago and the swimming pool water is a murky green.

He stays with her. Not really explaining anything. She doesn't force him out. It's quite an interesting relationship really.

The truth is, somewhat like Lost In Translation, nothing very much happens for most of the movie. It's much less foreigner in a strange land type of show, which Translation obviously was, with its reliance on Japglish jokes.