This movie has the premise for a main stream thriller. Instead, Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, in his second collaboration with Japanese star Asano Tadanobu and Hong Kong cinematographer Christopher Doyle, has made "Invisible Waves" into something unflinchingly art-house. Even the grey (i.e. not totally dark) humor is delivered with such underplaying that it is often difficult to keep a mainstream audience (if they happen to wander into the cinema uninformed) awake.
Asano Tadanobu, whom some consider to be Japan's Johnny Depp, can play a wide variety of roles from a wild killer (Ichi the Killer), to a tragic, somber samurai (Zatoichi) to a quiet, gentle bookstore owner (Café Lumiere). The role in "Invisible waves", however, is one that is closest to his star persona. Kyoji, a luckless cook finding himself in a somewhat inexplicable affair and ending up being the perpetrator of a dubious murder, flees Macau and Hong Kong, in a miserably claustrophobic cabin hole to Phuket, looking for an elusive shady character "Lizard" the boss has arranged for him to meet. A non-event, an encounter on the liner with a young woman (intriguing Kang Hye-Jeong from Korea's 2004 Cannes Grand Prix winner "Old Boy") who keeps dumping her baby on him so that she can go to swim, makes up another line of the "plot".
Instead of developing the suspense and relating elements, the movie makers focus on the minimalism existence of Kyoji (or non-existence, if you prefer). The thinking may be that if the audience is not drawn through the same boredom, how can they empathize with Kyoji's boredom with life? At the end of the two hours (a LONG two hours) things do have a degree of coherence and there is proper closure.
One interesting thing about this movie is that most of it is in English, the common language between the Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Korean characters. Most of these characters speak in way that it is demonstrated in no uncertain terms that English is indeed their second language. This, ironically, contributes to enhancing the sense of absurdity that is such a crucial, integral part of this movie.
Asano Tadanobu, whom some consider to be Japan's Johnny Depp, can play a wide variety of roles from a wild killer (Ichi the Killer), to a tragic, somber samurai (Zatoichi) to a quiet, gentle bookstore owner (Café Lumiere). The role in "Invisible waves", however, is one that is closest to his star persona. Kyoji, a luckless cook finding himself in a somewhat inexplicable affair and ending up being the perpetrator of a dubious murder, flees Macau and Hong Kong, in a miserably claustrophobic cabin hole to Phuket, looking for an elusive shady character "Lizard" the boss has arranged for him to meet. A non-event, an encounter on the liner with a young woman (intriguing Kang Hye-Jeong from Korea's 2004 Cannes Grand Prix winner "Old Boy") who keeps dumping her baby on him so that she can go to swim, makes up another line of the "plot".
Instead of developing the suspense and relating elements, the movie makers focus on the minimalism existence of Kyoji (or non-existence, if you prefer). The thinking may be that if the audience is not drawn through the same boredom, how can they empathize with Kyoji's boredom with life? At the end of the two hours (a LONG two hours) things do have a degree of coherence and there is proper closure.
One interesting thing about this movie is that most of it is in English, the common language between the Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Korean characters. Most of these characters speak in way that it is demonstrated in no uncertain terms that English is indeed their second language. This, ironically, contributes to enhancing the sense of absurdity that is such a crucial, integral part of this movie.