Kenji (Japanese star Asano Tadanobu, also appearing in the Festival this year in Atrichia, Bright Future and Dead End Run) is a suicide obsessed Japanese man living in Bangkok, searching for signs to validate his existence. When he accidentally kills a yakuza gang member pursuing his brother, Kenji's life takes a sudden detour. On the same night, Noi, a young Thai woman, witnesses her sister's death. It is only a matter of time before the universe conspires to throw the two together.

Enriched by the atmospheric style of Hong Kong'based, Australian expatriate cinematographer Christopher Doyle (whose photographic exhibition at this year's Festival, Why I am not a Painter, is detailed below), Last Life in the Universe is mesmerising, affecting cinematic experience.

'a quietly unsettling love story about people lost (and found) in the margins of one another's cultures, Last Life in the Universe doesn't just confirm Pen-ek Ratanaruang's reputation as Thai's finest commercial filmmaker; it propels him into the ranks of the most consistently innovative filmmakers working anywhere in the world. Strange, funny, tender, and subtly devastating'Last Life in the Universe is a minor masterpiece.' -Film Comment Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Christopher Doyle are guests of the Festival's

D Pen-ek Ratanaruang P Nonzee Nimibutr, Duangkamol Limcharoen, Wouter Barendrecht S Prabda Yoon, Pen-ek Ratanaruang WS Fortissimo Film Sales L Thai, English, Japanese w/English subtitles TD 35mm/Col/2003/112mins