Any longtime buff of the Pusan International FIim Festival will easily remember Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Following Fun Bar Karaoke and Mon-rak Transistor, his latest film, Last Life in the Universe, testifies to the fact that his already recognized witty style has now developed further to include meditative inspiration. This is a story about a suicide-obsessed Japanese man in Bangkok. who accidentally kills a yakuza and becomes pursued. He encounters a Thai woman who killed her own sister. Last Life in the Universe creates an atmosphere of life befitting its pompous title. Cameras move slowly and characters seem to be floating in a gravity-free state. And in the center of a dreamlike life, they hope for the salvation of love and life. The unique cinematic style that depicts unexpected events in a weary life is well combined with both humor and poetic sentiment. The film is absorbed with characters that don′t have much willingness to escape stuffy reality that it makes their lives an unrealistic fantasy. And that is the eccentricity of Last Ute in the Universe. (Kim Young-jin)