Roslindale Monogatari

Ruang rak noi nid mahasan / Last Life in the Universe (Pen-Ek RATANARUANG, 2003) This is only the second film from Thailand I've seen -- and, it just so happens, the second film I've seen that was made by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. Unlike Monrak Transistor , which seemed to be aimed mostly at a domestic Thai audience, Last Life is clearly an international film, featuring a romance between a Japanese library aide (Kenji, played by Tadanobu Asano), and a young Thai woman (Noi, played by Sinitta Boonyasak), who converse in a mixture of Thai, Japanese and English, in an awkwardly realistic seeming manner. Kenji is a neat freak with suicidal tendencies -- and an older brother who is on the lam from Japan, having aggravated his yakuza boss. Noi also has a problematic sibling, a sister who works as a bar girl (and has been messing around with Noi's sleazy ex-boyfriend). The two are brought together by the (unrelated) death of their siblings. Most of the film is spent at Noi's bea...

Rough (Kentarô Ôtani, 2006) An amiable enough adaptation of a 1980s sports manga by Mitsuru Adachil, about high school swimmers (and divers) -- though not quite so successful as Isshin Inudo's adaptation of Adachi's baseball manga Touch from 2005. The story here seems a bit too sketchy and a bit rushed -- and supporting characters who seem like they should play important roles come across like vestiges of what they should have been. Despite these problems, this film is worth seeing -- assuming one is interested in Japanese commercial cinema (and not just art films). The central pair here are a talented (but a bit careless and indolent) swimmer played by Mokomichi Hayami and a diver played by Masami Nagasawa. Their first encounter at the summer-time (residential) sports program mystifies Hayami -- as Nagasawa calls him "murderer" for no apparent reason. As it turns out, the explanation lies in the pair's family histories. Fate throws the two together -- ...