A tale of a prostitute with a surprisingly beautiful spirit, who engages in an interesting and unusual relationship with some guy? Those who perform this metier are mysterious alien beings, but look! They, too can have meaningful relations with ordinary people...Prostitution is a subject of endless fascination, if the quantity of plots which revolve around this subject is any proof.
However, many of the most extraordinary moments in film do not revolve around a completely original plot. In Last Life in the Universe, 2003, by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, a compulsively fastidious yakuza forms a bond with a Thai prostitute. The Thai director creates yet again another film filled with humorous and sublime sunlit moments.
Like Someone in Love appears to move slowly, but provides a great deal of movement in the details. There is a specific approach, very deliberate in its rhythm, towards presenting how difficult it is to hide the life less than ordinary of Akiko and her relationship to a client, Takashi a kindly professor. He is old enough to be her grandfather and somehow, very naturally, starts to inhabit that role.
We overhear many pivotal conversations, in fact, we witness a large part of the film, taking place in cars. Conversations in a car can be seen but not heard. One can forget that one can be observed by the outside world. Or, one can be extremely self-conscious that indeed the world is part of your experience...
People in real life, not just in films, do all sorts of things in cars. They have intimate, sometimes rather emotional conversations. They even feel safe enough to break down and cry. Sometimes, they do this while still trying to drive. This can be unfortunate for the other drivers on the road. Sometimes, they even have sex in cars. This private moment occurs sometimes, also, in the midst of driving. Teenagers and middle-agers, and yes, prostitutes. At times, people have a pressing need to change clothing in their car. A car is this in-between place, nowhere near as private as a room, but at the same time, is not entirely public.
In the car, the young woman asks the "grandfather" what he has told her boyfriend about their relationship. The boyfriend is outside the car, looking under the hood. He can see or hear nothing, but one understands the professor's compulsion to tell her to lower her voice, to say nothing. He has led the young man to believe that he is indeed her grandfather.
They are in the mechanic garage belonging to her boyfriend. At the same moment, in a neighboring car, a former student of the professor sees him, and converses with him through both cars' open windows.
The former student knows the young mechanic very well. The young woman shields herself behind the slightly open darkened window of the backseat, even though the former student does not know her. Her tension is palpable.
She rides in the back of a taxi and listens to innumerable messages from her grandmother who tries to visit her, but cannot find her. The messages reveal both anxiety for her granddaughter and even a little suspicion, as she sees one of the flyers advertising the young woman's services. The flyers list a different name for the girl, and an image that resembles her somewhat. She has a very ordinary face, and the image could be that of any number of young women. She directs the taxi to the spot where the grandmother waits, and watches her sadly while doing nothing, knowing in the dark of the night that she will not be seen.
The cinema room lights came on by mistake during the climactic ending scene of the film. Suddenly, I felt very visible. This added an especially jarring note to an ending which already had precipitated me a full centimeter off the seat a split second before. Possibly, the lights are intentional. You get these extras if you buy popcorn.