I Can't Eat This

Archive for the ‘2003’ Category

Intro Edition Asien -- Vol. 2 -- Ruang rak noi nid mahasan (Thailand 2003)

And here are intro-magazine’s sleevenotes:
A bittersweet romance in the style of Wong Kar-wai and Asia’s answer to “Lost” (New York Times).

The film: Kenji (Tadanobu Asano), a Japanese librarian in Bangkok, is a perfectionist: Only he isn’t able to manage his suicide. Over and over again somebody bursts into his regular world. Finally he develops a fragile relationship in the emotional Neverland of contradicting to Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak)…

The director: Pen-ek Ratanaruang shoots a subtle-funny film noir with camera legend Christopher Doyle (“In The Mood For Love”) and Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano (“Zatoichi”). At least since this bittersweet romance in the style of Wong Kar-wai, Ratanaruang is known as one of the best directors in Asia.

Not many words are made here and if so, then mostly English, because Kenji speaks no Thai and Noi no Japanese. So we have a nice accent mixup, beautiful. In addition this film lives on the quiet and sensitive camera work.

To the story: Kenji lives day after day his librarian’s life, how exciting this may be? Apparently not so much, because he often tries to commit suicide. But he won’t make it.
One day his brother pays a visit and brings in his co-Yakuza. Next, brother is shot by the colleague, and Kenji does the other Yakuza. Because he wouldn’t like to live in a flat with two corpses rotting around, he comes along to the search for something else and meets Noi in a road accident. She speaks practically no word with him, but however, takes him up with herself.
As far as I can remember -- it’s been a while I have seen the film -- since then Kenji doesn’t go to work any more. Also he wants her to stay in the house with him all the time. One time, to prevent her from leaving, he simply lies down before the tyres of her car and gets almost driven over. Maybe she hits him slightly with the car, I can’t remember for real.
Funny by all means is a quarrel they have with having lunch, where they want to persuade each other of the fact that one has to eat noisily and slurpy or vice versa.

The film shows how anyone can make his own, in fact simple life (and/or other one’s, too) difficult by any means. Don’t make no compromises! Don’t do anything different than ever! Just beat your head against the wall all the time, again and again and again!

There are DVDs of this movie released in the UK, USA, Hongkong, South Korea, Thailand and Germany. Take a look at your local videostore.

Last Life In The Universe at imdb.com