Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano (Taboo, Ichi the Killer, Zatoichi ), Australian-born Hong Kong cinematographer Christopher Doyle (Hero, In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express ), and Thai cowriter-director Pen-ek Ratanuruang (6IXTYNIN9, Fun Bar Karaoke ) combine their immense talents in the stunningly eloquent and marvelously offbeat black comedy Last Life in the Universe. Asano stars as Kenji, a librarian with OCD, a yakuza brother, and a propensity to consider various ways of killing himself. About to jump off a bridge, he sees a traffic accident, leading to a bizarrely touching Harold & Maude–like relationship with the young and beautiful Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak), who tends to be a little bit wild. As they try to make a simple life for themselves, danger lurks right around the corner in this nearly perfect, sadly overlooked film. Last Life in the Universe is screening at MoMA on November 12 & 18 as part of the “In Focus: Fortissimo Films” series, paying tribute to the company that has been distributing international independent releases for twenty years. The festival, which runs through November 21, opens November 10 with Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng introducing his latest, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, and continues with such global favorites as Wisit Sasanatieng’s Tears of the Black Tiger , Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together (introduced by Doyle on November 11), Zhang Yuan’s Beijing Bastards , Zhang Yang’s Shower , and the Pang brothers’ creepy horror flick The Eye .

For more information, see http://twi-ny.com/blog/2011/11/10/in-focus-fortissimo-films-last-life-in-the-universe/