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Last Life in the Universe (2003) More at IMDbPro »Ruang rak noi nid mahasan (original title)

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6 items from 2011

8 September 2011 2:38 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

Headshot is from director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, considered one of Thai cinema’s leading “new wave” auteurs. He is best known for his 2003 film Last Life in the Universe and if his new film is half as good, than it is well worth your time. Based on a novel called Rain Falling Up the Sky by a well-known Thai writer, Win Lyovarin, who actually originally intended it to be a sceenplay.

Intresting progam note from Tiff:

Working with his regular cinematographer, Chankit Chamnivikaipong, Pen-ek evokes Tul’s journey into the underworld in unusually muted and dusky tones. Vichaya Vatanasapt’s music gives us a sense of perpetually downward movement. And in Jayanama, with whom the director has now worked twice, Headshot finds its perplexed soul, always struggling to make the closest thing to a moral choice in a deeply immoral world.

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- Ricky

5 September 2011 3:17 AM, PDT | Affenheimtheater | See recent Affenheimtheater news »

International (meaning English subtitled) trailer for Headshot by Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang who some of you might remember from his 2003 drama Last Life in the Universe. The film will is based on the novel Rain Falling Up the Sky by Win Lyovarin and will premiere on the Toronto International Film Festival

[See full post to watch this video]

Synopsis:

Present-day Thailand is rife with corruption. Tul, a straight-laced cop, is blackmailed by a powerful politician and framed from a crime he did not commit. Disillusioned and vengeful, he is soon recruited to become a hitman for a shadowy group aimed at eliminating those who are above the law. But one day, Tul is shot in the head during an assignment. He wakes up after a three-month coma to find that he sees everything upside down, literally.

Unaware of whether the condition is medical or a result of karmic retribution, Tul begins to have second thoughts about his profession. »

- Ulrik

4 September 2011 10:00 AM, PDT | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

We like Pen-Ek Ratanaruang around here a lot.  Sixty-Nine is a consummate post-Tarantino black comedy and Last Life in the Universe could be considered a major touchstone film amongst many of the Twitch writing staff.  Some might say that the Thai director's output has been spotty since the derivative Invisible Waves in 2006 (although I think Nymph is seriously underrated as an existential horror film, which more than holds its own with Lars Von Trier's similar Antichrist.)  Suffice it to say that his lastest film a literally upside-down cop thriller sees the director returning to high-concept genre filmmaking, which has me a bit giddy with anticipation for its Tiff 2011 bow.  We've got the subtitled trailer below, and fair warning, *there is enough nudity and »

3 August 2011 9:47 AM, PDT | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

Fresh off its announcement as part of the Vanguard lineup at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, Twitch has a batch of new stills plus the first look at the official poster for Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Headshot.Widely hailed as the return to the sort of smart, genre oriented fare that marked his early career, Headshot is a character driven crime noir from the director of Last Life In The Universe, Invisible Waves and Ploy.Present-day Thailand is rife with corruption. Tul, a straight-laced cop, is blackmailed by a powerful politician and framed from a crime he did not commit. Disillusioned and vengeful, he is soon recruited to become a hitman for a shadowy group aimed at eliminating those who are above the law. But one day, »

21 May 2011 12:53 PM, PDT | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

The lovely folks over at Third Window Films, one of the UK's finest purveyors of Asian entertainment, have grabbed a couple of cool little titles from the Cannes film market.  The first of which is Twitch favorite, Shinji Imaoka's (Bottled Vulva: Bank Teller Noriko) Underwater Love, and the second is comedy omnibus film Sabi Otoko Sabi Onna from directors Gen Sekiguchi (Survive Style 5+), Masaya Kakehi, Mipo Oh, Tomoko Matsunashi, and Yosuke Fujita (Fine, Totally Fine).Underwater Love has gotten a lot of love here.  The film is probably best known for having been shot by legendary cinematographer Christopher Doyle (Chungking Express, Last Life in the Universe, The Limits of Control, etc), it seems to have a lot more going for it than that.  The script, »

16 May 2011 2:09 PM, PDT | MUBI | See recent MUBI news »

Time for a quick break from the news coming out of Cannes. With the emphasis on quick, here's a bit on what's going on elsewhere.

First, on the film journal front, Midnight Eye's posted three new reviews and a feature by Mark Player, "Post-Human Nightmares: The World of Japanese Cyberpunk Cinema." The new Offscreen features pieces on Luis Buñuel, Jesús Franco, Wristcutters: A Love Story, A Single Man and 3D. Word from Catherine Grant: "The second issue of the new Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism has just been posted online, with a wonderful looking Lang dossier, a fine tribute to the late Robin Wood, which takes the form of seven of his rarest pieces from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. And there's more besides on Susan Hayward and Vincente Minnelli." Speaking of Lang, you'll want to see David Bordwell's latest entry on how Lang shifts our alignment and »

6 items from 2011