Movies - Last Life in the Universe

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	Movies - Last Life in the Universe

Last Life in the Universe (Thai title: Ruang rak noi nid mahasan) is a 2003 Thai film directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. The film is notable for being trilingual; the two main characters flit from Thai to Japanese to English as their vocabulary requires.

Plot

Kenji is a mysterious librarian with the Japan Foundation in Bangkok. Living in an obsessively neat apartment full of precise stacks of books, he is convinced that death will be a pleasant nap between lives, but finds his half-hearted attempts to kill himself continually interrupted by the people around him. Kenji's most notable obstacle is his self-absorbed brother, Yukio, who may be a yakuza, or Japanese gangster. Yukio is on vacation from Japan to escape the wrath of his employer, whose daughter he slept with. Yukio's friend Takashi suggests that if it were his daughter, he would have the despoiler killed, but Kenji's brother laughs this warning off. Yukio frequents a club where he can enjoy the attention of a bunny-eared hostess, a local girl named Nid. Nid's sister, Noi, is furious at her sibling for having slept with her ex-boyfriend, Jon.

One day in the library, Kenji spies on Nid, clad in a school girl's uniform. Soon after, he discovers that his brother has hidden a pistol inside a teddy bear. He is about to shoot himself when Yukio is slain by Takashi, who was apparently hired by Yukio's employer. Takashi sees Kenji, who appears hopeful at his impending death, but suddenly Kenji shoots and kills the assassin. Not long after that, Kenji is about to jump off a bridge when Noi and Nid, driving past, have an argument. Noi throws Nid out of the car, then reconsiders. Nid, distracted by Kenji sitting on the railing of the bridge, is struck by another car and slain.

Kenji and Noi, both having lost a sibling, form a tentative friendship. The introspective Kenji asks the extroverted Noi if he can stay with her, unwilling to spend time with the two corpses in his apartment. Noi agrees, and invites the fussy Japanese man into her disastrously unkempt beachside home. As Kenji begins cleaning, Noi prepares to leave for Japan to further her career. Surreal elements creep into the film; Noi sees the house magically cleaning itself, while Kenji watches Noi transform into her temptress sister. The couple, in some ways polar opposites and in some ways mirror images, form a semi-romantic relationship. Meanwhile, the abusive and promiscuous ex-boyfriend Jon begins calling, angry that Noi thinks she can leave him. Three yakuza are also dispatched to find out what has happened to Takashi.

In the final segments, Kenji drives Noi to the airport, then decides he will join her. He returns to his apartment to gather his things and purposely knock over a stack of books. While he is in the bathroom, first Jon, then the yakuza arrive. Jon is slain, and Kenji apparently escapes out the window. The movie then cuts back and forth between two apparent endings: one, in which Kenji has been arrested for some unspecified crime, and another in which after been arrested briefly, he re-united with Noi in Japan.

Throughout the movie are images of the furtive gecko who lives in Noi's house, as well as The Last Lizard, Kenji's children's book about a reptile who wakes up to discover he is the final member of his species. The fictional lizard realizes that even being with his enemies, the other lizards who picked on him, was preferable to being alone.

Interpretations

Some people, perplexed by the ending, have suggested that Kenji is indeed reunited with Noi, after a brief detainment by the authorities. Others claim that he is merely dreaming about her, which is a much healthier fantasy than killing himself. Whether he was arrested for killing two people or five is also up for debate. Still others suggest that the entire movie is structured like the famous story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, a could-have-been life flashing before Kenji's eyes in the instant before he successfully hanged himself or was slain by Takashi.

Another complication is the possibility that Kenji, despite his bookish demeanor, is actually a former yakuza himself. The elaborate tattoo on his back seems to support this view, though some claim that Kenji and Noi are merely imagining themselves as becoming more like their deceased siblings, as evidenced by the sudden revealing of Kenji's elaborate back tattoo (some have also speculated that Kenji's brother is in fact is Yakuza brother or "Aniki" and not his blood relative) and Noi randomly switching between her clothes and her sister's schoolgirl outfit, in between shots of the same scene. However, it would be hard to argue that Kenji's skillful use of a firearm in the dark, in the beginning of the film, as well as his strength when he attacks Jon after Jon assaults Noi, was imagined.

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