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The story focuses on Kenji, an anally tidy, suicide-obsessed Japanese librarian, working in Bangkok, and his journey through the film encountering his brash brother, his brother’s Yakuza assassin, a short-lived obsession with Thai prostitute Nid, and his relationship with her messy boho sister Noi. There’s also a bizarre revenge twist where Takesi Miike (director of Audition, Ichi the Killer etc) turns up as a comically villainous Yakuza hit man. There’s so much to savour in this film – the darkly humorous way Kenji’s suicide attempts are interrupted, his slow-paced and growing relationship with Noi when he moves into her house, turning it from a trashed mess into something fit for a home improvement magazine. And there’s the questions – who is Kenji? Why does he have that tattoo on his back? Why does Noi have this big house to herself? How much of this really happened – did Kenji really kill himself (his suicide fantasies are vivid enough)? Certainly the film’s slow pace and the almost sepia-tinged tone sets Bangkok as some strange sparsely populated place, which seems out of character. And did I mention the cinematography? Well, I did again. Plenty reason to see ‘Last Life…’ then. You may not be blown away, but you’ll be slowly seduced by its awkward charms.
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