At first sight, Kenji (Tadanobu Asano, never more watchable) seems the exemplary librarian. Anal, fastidious and allergic to fish, he has hidden himself away in the library of a Japanese cultural centre in Bangkok. Insofar as he thinks about himself, he identifies with ‘the last lizard on earth’ in a children’s book. But he seems to have a secret, possibly one connected with the full-back yakuza tattoo concealed by his shirt. By the time his secret catches up with him (there are bodies in his apartment, but let’s not go into the sordid details), he has stumbled into the life of Thai bar-girl Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak), devastated by the death of her sister in a traffic accident but determined to pull herself together in time to emigrate to Japan next week. They spend a few days together in her semi-derelict house near Pattaya, during which... Pen-ek has followed the sardonic-but-sincere Monrak Transistor with an uneventful-but-gripping tale of the strangeness of our emotional bonds. It boasts Chris Doyle’s best camerawork since Happy Together and has a pearl beyond price in Takashi Miike’s cameo as a vengeful hitman from Osaka in shades and snakeskin suit. In short, magic