The Competition section for this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival included the latest from iconic pop star-turned-actor Takuya Kimura and Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, but the programming also made room for Asian arthouse cinema with films by Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Zhang Lu in the lineup — the latter clinching two awards, including best director.
Ratanaruang’s “Morte Cucina” is a simple but subversive story starring the doe-eyed Bella Boonsang as Sao, a server at a Bangkok restaurant who harbors culinary ambitions of her own. When Sao encounters Korn, a devilishly handsome real estate broker, during a shift, she gently insinuates herself into his life. Interspersed with flashbacks to Sao’s younger years in a devout rural community, a tale of retribution and redemption unfolds.
Ratanaruang achieved cult status more than two decades ago with “Last Life in the Universe” (2003), which cast Tadanobu Asano as a lonesome Japanese man in Thailand foiled in his lackluster attempts to end his life. Asano reunites with the director in “Morte Cucina” for a brief turn as a flamboyant expat artist.
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