Emotionless-ness reaches new heights in "Invisible Waves," the long awaited second feature from Thailand's Pen-Ek Ratanaruang in which he teams up once again with our own, homegrown Tadanobu Asano.
The Ratanaruang-Asano team made a splash in the international film fest scene with "Last Life in the Universe" three years back, and if anything, this latest puts a polish on the way the director combines languid, Southeast Asian aesthetics with violence and unspoken inner turmoil. Blood is shed, but there's a curious detachment to it all, as if the characters are capable of walking away from corpses unconcerned and without malice, to stroll over to a noodle stall for a cold beer and a steaming bowl. Not that any of this happens, but it feels as if it might — and this particular precariousness of mood is something Ratanaruang is a master at generating.
Asano plays Kyoji, a chef who commutes from Macau to Hong Kong every day on the ferry and looks as though he's never had a violent thought in his life. One night his girlfriend (Tomono Kuga) turns up at his apartment for a romantic dinner, but a couple of bites into the meal she dies — Kyoji has poisoned her, on orders from his boss (Thai star Toon Hiranyasup), who it turns out is his girlfriend's husband. Having found out about the affair, the boss had decided this was to be their punishment. The deed done, Kyoji is so upset he can't work or function and, as compensation, the boss offers him a cruise trip to Phuket.