Kenji (Tadanobu Asano), a thirty-something year-old Japanese librarian living in Thailand, who doens't suffer from obsessive–compulsive disorder but he surely exaggerates about cleaning or packing. Anyway, has a complicated brother whose scams and irresponsible acts leave Kenji's house with two dead bodies in it, his brother's and the assassin's. For the record, there's a scene where we see Kenji spying on a girl in a uniform, Nid (Laila Boonyasak), who works on the bar where we previously watch Kinji's brother. Kenji's got to run. Having already tried to kill himself before, he heads to a bridge and while preparing to jump, as he looks back a running over takes place right behind him. Nid was the victim He immediately helps the injured young woman and ends up requesting shelter to the girl who'd been making company to Nid, her sister Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak). Nid didn't survive. The story is not confusing at all, told in this way. The problem is that this isn't told to you very clearly. And from this point, scenes come up where Nid and Noi alternate. Like the Asian cinema has been showing, the director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang explores both loneliness and love. Eventually, the notion of the love being explored diverges from the normal, now more related to family or friendship, but still, very inspiring and audacious. The biggest problem with this one, is that it gets incredibly boring at certain points, making it quite uncomfortable to make it until the end, 6/10

My second Ratanaruang film has turned out to be just as good as the first; it's also different enough lend further credence to my theory that Ratanaruang is one of the best directors working today. Last Life in the Universe is about Kenji, a suicidal ex-yakuza librarian who explains that he isn't suicidal for the normal reasons. He seems to be suffering from an existential malaise; while there are hundreds of books in his obsessively tidy, colorless apartment from serious authors like Yukio Mishima the only thing that seems to give him any comfort is a children's book about a lizard who wakes one day to find that he is the only one of his kind left in the world. In spite of the overtures others make to him, Kenji feels just as alone as the character in his book.Eventually he finds himself thrust into the life of a woman who is in many ways his opposite: she lives in a bright, messy house and seems to be involved in some kind of relationship with a man. Still, she's in a fragile enough emotional state to attract (and be attracted to) Kenji.From the opening scenes Ratanaruang makes it clear that portraying an objective reality is not his goal with this film: it's all about Kenji's interior state. Some scenes occur out of sequence and there are some impossible character substitutions that go unremarked. Ratanaruang makes some bold narrative choices that might have fallen flat if not for the visual mastery on display throughout the film. Of course, this is surely at least partially due to the work of lauded director of photography Christopher Doyle. Ultimately, the film's rejection of traditional narrative allows it to successfully portray Kenji's mental state while simultaneously maintaining an aura of mystery by not committing to any one version of events.

About one year ago I watched the first 40 minutes, I think, of this film and I liked but it was after midnight so I was tired and this film was a complete "knock out". But I always remembered the images of Tadanobu Asano's character in the first part of the film and I really have desires of watch the film so finally last week I have the chance to get the DVD and finally watch it.In the 30 minutes introduction of the story, we can see the behavior and some of the thoughts of Kenji (Tadanobu Asano), a Japanese man living and wanting to die in Bangkok, Thailand. He is extremely tidy and extremely clean, spending his time working in a library, reading and thinking in his suicide but the reasons of why he wants to be dead are not the common, like he says, like money problems or a failed relation. He has a strange and mysterious view to dead but suddenly he is witness of the dead of Nid (Laila Boonyasak), the little sister of Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak) and he enters in the life of Noi, having a strange but strong friendship with her.I really enjoyed and loved this strange film. I say strange because it actually begins after 30 minutes of introduction and because it has many bizarre scenes. The first part is full of the poetry that Kenji relates to dead and the thoughts of the lizard from Kenji's book feels like another thought of the same Kenji. Also in that part we can see the relation between Kenji and his brother Yukio (Yutaka Matsushige) who is a Yakuza that looks Kenji just as a crazy man. When he enters in the life of Noi everything is different because both are really different from each other, even in the feelings about losing a brother/sister. The end is strange because we can see that Kenji and Noi build a great friendship but also that Kenji is in danger because of the Yakuzas.Anyway, the cast is superb with an amazing performance of Tadanobu Asano. I have only watched him in a main role in other film, "Ichi the Killer", and this role is very different but both performances are amazing. The sisters Boonyasak are great and the support cast is very little but has the funny performance of the great Takashi Miike. It was so great to see Miike as a Yakuza and also the detail of the poster of "Ichi the Killer" with Kakihara is great.Conclusion: I love this film that was my introduction to the work of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. I recommend this beautiful film to any fan of Jim Jarmusch because Pen-Ek Ratanaruang has all of his influence and because is just great.

First off, this is a very artistic film (any movie you watch that the credits are inter-spaced over the first 33 *minutes* you know is going to be different and experimental) and as great as the film is, its a human interest story and therefore it does progress slowlyKenji is a Japanese man living in Thailand Everything is his life is absolutely perfect down to the most minute details He has a job as a librarian and spends the rest of his time reading (in particular a Japanese child's fable, which is the basis for the English title of the movie) He is not happy and feels his life is utterly pointless. He is irritated by all the noise around him (everything from TV to phone to other people) and he often contemplates suicide (as to him it is a peaceful sleep where he wont be disturbed. His latest suicide attempt is foiled when his brother shows up (on the run from a Yakuza boss who's daughter he slept with) During a gun fight Kenji flees, and meets NoiNoi works as an adult entertainer who is planning to leave Thailand for Osaka. She has a boyfriend who has cheated many times on her (including with her own sister) Noi has a fight with her sister over the affair and Nid ends up being killed, which makes Noi feel responsible forKenji and Noi find an odd solace in each others time of need (he feels alone and she is scared of being alone) and they go out of Bangkok to the province where Noi lives