LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

Kenji (Tadanobu Asano) is Japanese, a librarian in Bangkok, compulsively tidy and preoccupied with the thought of taking his own life. An incident with the Yakuza forces him into hiding. A chain of coincidences leads him to Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak), a bar hostess whose sister has just died in an accident. With nowhere else to go, he moves into her house by the sea for three days. The two barely share a language – Thai, Japanese and English alternate, whichever suffices at the moment – yet they share their sadness. The Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang shot “Last Life in the Universe” in 2003.

The film is trilingual and takes its time with the silence between two people who cannot explain themselves. It screened in competition in Venice in 2003, where Tadanobu Asano won the award for best actor for his role as Kenji. “Last Life in the Universe” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2006.

Shown at the 2006 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2006 · Film Archive