Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's wistful mood piece about loneliness, love, and despair opens with a man dangling from a noose in a grey apartment clutching a suicide note that reads: "This is bliss." It's an apt comment on Last Life In The Universe, since this Thai/Japanese co-production proves to be a blissfully unusual love story, starring Tadanobu Asano. He plays Kenji, a Japanese bookworm living in Thailand, whose thoughts of suicide lead him to fall in love with flighty Thai hostess Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak) while being pursued by the yakuza.

No ditzy romance, this is as quirkily offbeat as you'd expect from the man behind Thai musical Monrak Transitor. Following Kenji and Noi as they struggle to cope with the aftermath of Noi's sister's suicide, this tranquil drama hides a blackly comic take on the absurdity of the universe. Communicating with each other in broken English, snatches of Thai, and the occasional bit of Japanese, the two strangers gradually realise their own need for love and understanding.

"FULL OF MAGICAL SURPRISES"

It may sound like a conventional tale, but this is full of magical surprises that occasionally ruffle its otherwise serene surface. Delighting in the unexpected, Ratanaruang delivers a series of strange moments; like the Bedknobs And Broomsticks sequence in which a messy house tidies itself; the crackers trio of yakuza hitmen (led by none other than Japanese director Takashi Miike); and a main title credit that only appears on screen 40 minutes into the movie.

Anchoring the film's dreamily listless air of Eastern miserabilism and comic absurdity is rising Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano (Ichi The Killer, Zatoichi) who plays against type as the anal-retentive, depressive loner. Capturing the awkward shyness of a man who's completely uncomfortable in his own skin - yet hides a dark history that the yakuza tattoo on his back only hints at - Asano delivers an enthralling performance of someone who feels as though he is living the last life in the universe.

In Thai with English subtitles.

Last Life In The Universe is released in UK cinemas on Friday 30th July 2004.