Yesterday, I was reading an interview my good friend Lekha Shankar did with one of my favorite Thai filmmakers, Pen-ek Ratanaruang. He was mostly talking about his career as well as the release of his newest film, Invisible Waves, which I saw at the opening of the Bangkok Film Festival last month.

Pen-ek studied Art History at the Pratt Institute in New York with the intention of having a career working in museums. Somehow he ended up at an advertising agency, though, first in the Big Apple, and then in here in the Big Mango. He did that for nearly a decade before he decided filmmaking was his true calling. Some of his most well known films are Last Life in the Universe, Monrak Transistor, and 6ixtynin9. He is a visionary filmmaker and his work is quirky, off beat, humorous, and fun to watch. Last Life in the Universe and Invisible Waves both utilize world famous cinematographer Christopher Doyle (2046, Chungking Express, Hero) as well as the talented Japanese actor, Asano Tadanabe.

The surprising thing was that in the interview Pen-ek admits his all-time favorite noodle shop is a little place on Sukhumvit Soi 49. He said, “I wish my films would look and feel as assured as the noodles from this shop.” That’s the soi that I live on, and there’s only one noodle stand on this soi that I know of, so I walked across the street to have a bowl of kwatio there for lunch.

Just as my noodles were served, guess who walked in? It’s funny because he was wearing the exact same clothes that he has on in a press photo that’s been sitting in my desk at work for a year. Pen-ek was obviously a favored customer at this shop as the chef and the owner were both giving him big hugs and asking what he’s been up to. It was a pretty weird coincidence. Or maybe he comes there everyday? Who knows. I wanted to turn around and say something, but every time I do something like that it ends up sounding so stupid. “Hi, uh… I’m here because I just read and interview with you and, errr… I really like your films.”

That would just be so gauche…