Short Round: Last Life in the Universe (2003) ****/*****

For a movie that starts off introducing us to a suicidal protagonist, goes on to involve us in a tangled web of machismo soaked Yakuza dealings, and then sticks us right in the middle of a violent murder scene, Last Life in the Universe is actually pretty low key. And I wouldn’t describe it as grim or violent at all. It’s actually kind of sweet. You see, all that stuff I mentioned earlier, that all happens at the very beginning of the movie. It’s almost like a preface. And then, somewhere around 35 minutes into the film’s runtime, we finally get the title card. From that point on what we’re watching is an odd couple relationship where a neat freak Japanese man and a messy free spirit of a Thai girl end up living in a house together, and then they sort of orbit around each other and threaten to actually interact. Such a strangely structured film doesn’t seem like it should work, but it really does. It’s interesting largely because you don’t get any of the usual opposites attract clichés, and while the two lead characters do eventually come together, it’s not in a showy, romantic way like you might imagine. This movie is much subtler and sweeter than that. Sometimes a small gesture of kindness can mean so much more than a big, showy bunch of romantic nonsense. Largely because of compelling lead performances by Tadanobu Asano and Sinitta Boonyasak, you get so wrapped up in the budding relationship between the boy and the girl that you almost forget they still have the business of murders and the Yakuza hanging over their heads. Of course, eventually it all comes intruding back in on their lives, and I found the way in which it all gets resolved to be ambiguous but satisfying. Also, this is the first Thai film I’ve seen that wasn’t weird and bad, so go Thailand!