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Review

It is doubtful that you will see another movie this year as haunting or intriguing as Invisible Waves. Kyoji (played by Japanese star Tadanobu Asano in another great performance), is a mild-mannered hitman assigned to assassinate his lover, who just so happens to also be his boss’s wife. After completing the job, he is asked to take a vacation to Phuket. But instead of the luxurious get-away he was hoping to find, Kyoji is confronted by a series of uncomfortable encounters, many of which center around the language barrier and his inability to communicate. Or so it seems… Unsure of his foreign surroundings, Kyoji makes several desperate attempts to contact his boss in an effort to get home. But once plunged into the depths of this personal hell, Kyoji may never return. With creatively constructed genre pieces like Monrak Transistor and Last Life in the Universe, director Ratanaruang has become a staple of our festival and others world-wide. Probably his most deceptively simple work to date, Invisible Waves is another well-crafted masterpiece that builds curious and intriguing details into an enigmatic work of genius. (Thai, English, Japanese, Korean with English subtitles)

 -- Michael Lerman