AS MEMORABLE performances in The Sixth Sense and About A Boy prove, Toni Collette is one of the finest actresses of her generation.

In Sue Brooks' haunting road movie, the Australian leading lady surpasses herself, plumbing such raw and intense emotions you'll find yourself gasping for breath.

Little wonder she has been showered with Best Actress prizes for Japanese Story by virtually every facet of her home film industry.

Sandy Edwards (Collette) is a geologist based in the Western Australian desert, who is struggling to make a success of a fledgling company set up with her business partner Baird (Matthew Dyktynski).

They are pioneering a new software application which uses satellite technology to map terrain in minute detail, providing invaluable information on normally inhospitable areas of the world.

Part of the company is owned by a Japanese businessman and when his high-flying son, Hiromitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima), schedules a visit to Australia, Sandy is assigned to be his tour guide.

From the moment Sandy and Hiromitsu meet, the tension and distrust are obvious, despite the language barrier.

She finds him offensively sexist, arrogant and inscrutable; in turn, he is unnerved by her brash, forthright manner.

Sandy is nothing like the demure and subservient ideal of Japanese womanhood - he thinks she doesn't know her place in society.

Tempers soon flare when Hiromitsu demands that Sandy drive him deep into the wilderness, up a winding track.

She is powerless to refuse, for fear of upsetting one of the company's prime investors.

Sure enough, the two-wheel drive jeep falls foul of the red sands of the Pilbara desert, and Sandy and Hiromitsu face the terrifying prospect of surviving the scorching heat with no food, water or means of communication.

Trapped in this life or death struggle, East finally meets West and these two strangers discover that in order to survive, they must work together.

Japanese Story is a haunting meditation on the fragility of life that uses the arid Australian desert as a beautiful yet deadly backdrop to the roller-coaster emotions of the two characters.

Writer-director Sue Brooks conceals a jaw-dropping twist in the second act which sends the film spinning into uncharted territory.

Collette's tour-de-force theatrics contrast nicely with the icy reserve of Tsunashima's uptight businessman, whose reserve gradually wilts in the blistering heat.

Rating: 8/10