Last Days depicts the fatal decision by a Christian missionary to make contact with one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes.
PLOT: The true story of John Allen Chau (Sky Yang), a devout American Christian missionary who was killed while trying to contact an isolated tribe on North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean.
REVIEW: Justin Lin is best known nowadays for his work on the Fast & Furious franchise. He is the man responsible for elevating what started out as a modestly budgeted, B-level series into the block-busting global behemoth it’s become. Yet, Lin began his career with a Sundance hit called Better Luck Tomorrow, which had an infamous Q&A (an audience member said it was irresponsible to make a movie with an Asian cast that didn’t have positive characters – prompting Roger Ebert to loudly proclaim them as condescending), and is a gem worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.
Lin returns to the indie genre with all the tricks and style he learned directing for the studios with Last Days. An epic, globe-spanning drama, it looks and feels like a studio film, although it concerns subject matter they probably wouldn’t green light in a million years. John Allen Chau, who posthumously “won” The Darwin Award, is a complicated protagonist. Devoutly religious, he believes he’s on a divine mission to spread Christianity in every corner of the world, leading to him hooking up with a group of missionaries who approach conversions the same way Dom and his gang approach heists in The Fast Saga.
When the movie begins, Chau is a naive graduate of Oral Roberts University who turns his back on his father’s med school dreams for him to work on Christian missions worldwide. He soon hooks up with an edgy missionary (Toby Wallace) whose charisma and coolness make a huge impression on Chau. He’s part of a crew that spreads Christianity to global hot spots, like Kabul and the deepest reaches of the Amazon, where other groups not only wouldn’t dare go – but are actually prevented from going by law. He decides he’s going to one-up them by going to the one place no missionary dares to go, the North Sentinel Islands, whose Indigenous inhabitants want to be left alone and have met unwanted visitors with deadly force.
Lin keeps the pace propulsive, cutting back and forth between Chau’s misguided mission and an investigation by an Indian cop (Radhika Apte) into his disappearance, with the American embassy demanding answers as to where he is. Lin’s film greatly empathizes with Chau, depicting him as driven and charismatic, even if his naivety proves deadly. The film has an epic feel, with Chau exploring the world in the years leading up to his misguided mission and Yang excellent in a complicated role.
He’s well supported by Ken Leung as his father, a disgraced MD who raised his son in the church to help him integrate into American life, but never quite got just how deep his beliefs would prove to be. Apte is excellent as the local cop looking for Chau as a way to keep the North Sentinalese from too much outside attention, although her boss (played by Naveen Andrews of Lost fame) tells her it is inevitable that the tribe won’t be allowed to stay uncontacted for long.
One important thing to note about Last Days is that Lin’s film never asks you to think of Chau as a kind of hero, even if the movie presents him as ultimately sympathetic. It’s a nuanced portrayal of a man whose saviour complex literally led to his horrible demise. It’s entertaining, and slickly made, with it playing as a kind of hybrid to Lin’s two sensibilities. It has the style of his studio films and the soul of his early indie work.
