This film is a treasure. Technically it shouldn’t be here, as it was made in Thailand and directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaraung (okay, I’ll stop making fun of my friends who get confused by Japanese names). But as a collaboration with bad-boy Japanese director Takashi Miike, it features superstar Tadanobu Asano in the main role with dialogue in Thai, Japanese and English. Last Life in the Universe (2003) is a crime film of sorts, but at the same time a penetrating look at cross-cultural communication (or the lack thereof) and how all human longing is, in some sense, romantic.

Modern Bangkok is really one of the great tragedies of the world. Traditional Thai culture is rather conservative–you wear long pants at the beach–and the people of Thailand are justifiably proud of never having been officially colonized by any power, Western or Asian. But walls Imperialist armies couldn’t batter down fell rather quickly to cash money, and today Bangkok is known as the sex capitol of the world. And while we think of white tourists as responsible, Japan also fuels much of the illict sex trade in the region. An early scene in Last Life takes place in a bar where the Thai waitresses wear schoolgirl uniforms and bunny ears to cater to Japanese–like low-level Yakuza thug Yukio.

Above: Why some of us prefer books to life

Yukio is waiting out professional heat in Bangkok along with his brother, the quiet, bookish and suicidal Kenji (Asano). But while Kenji can’t seem to make up his mind to off himself, two very bad things happen in quick succesion: Yukio is shot dead by former confederates whom Kenji is forced to kill in self-defense. Then he hits and kills a prostitute with his car. Fortunately one of the problems “solves” the other, as he moves in–at first against her will–with the dead prostitute’s sister, Noi. Takashi Miike then guest-stars as the Yakuza hitman sent to take care of Kenji.

Above: That’s what he thought.

This probably makes the film sound more action-packed than it is. Mostly Kenji and Noi sit around, smoke pot, fight, and try to communicate. A cheap audio-tape that Noi has bought to teach herself Japanese loops in the background. Why? She’s going to Osaka soon. What for? “Same kind of thing I do here.” We soon learn something surprising about Kenji (or think we do), and the action ramps up at the end. There are surreal, dreamlike overtones.

Above: Really, there are a lot of scenes like this

What a strange and fantastic movie, and what a rare privilege: to see Japan not simply from its own perspective (which is rare enough), but from that of a nation on the receiving end of Japan’s own economic imperialism. And yet so much reverence is given to all its characters and to both cultures. I haven’t seen Lost In Translation and am told it’s good; but assuming it’s not significantly better than most of what Hollywood does (and assuming who cares about a white dude in Japan even if it is Bill Murray), this film is like Lost In Translation, but more beautiful and more true.