The importance of utilizing a cultural perspective lens while viewing a foreign movie is essential. In this present day hyperwoke zeitgeist it is also nearly impossible, since the snowflake generation has nominated itself to be the most conscientious, moral and politically correct generation ever. Newsflash…they are not, every single generation before them thought the same thing about themselves. Odds are all subsequent generations shall do the same. So how does a Westerner watch and then criticize a movie from a culture as fundamentally foreign as Japan. Especially a movie about (sadly to this day) controversial subject from right under the LGBTQ umbrella. Specifically how does one separate the movie from its culture? Japan, like most Asia, isn’t exactly gay friendly. So in theory this is huge. Positively revolutionary. To do this grand lesbian drama. If for no other reason than it increases visibility, thus normalizing it. Although let’s face it this movie isn’t going to go very far with normalizing lesbians for anyone. Yes, I’m sorry to say, this Japanese sapphic reimagining of Thelma and Louise (actually it’s an adaptation of a famous manga series Gunjo by Ching Nakamura) is a steaming pile of doodoo. And no, not a steamy pile, that would have been nice, after all this movie lives and dies by its romantic aspect. In fact, for those who care, the love scenes in here (despite utilizing an intimacy interpreter…yes, that’s a real thing someone gets paid for) are tragically laughable. And there’s also the fact that there’s inexplicably more straight sex than lesbian one and it lasts longer. Which is to say that by the time the two protagonists of this movie get together they produce one of the most…terrible, just terrible lesbian love scenes ever committed to celluloid. The dialogue during is it just..tragic. You’d think a man wrote it, but no, it’s adapted by a woman from a book by a woman. Maybe it was the male director. Maybe it’s Maybelline. But it’s complete and total sh*te. Would the movie get by on just relying on two pretty actresses and some nice Japanese scenery? No, not at that length. The scenery can’t sustain the terrible dialogue, the incessant weeping and the downright bizarre behavior. The plot is straight out of the American 90s movies with murderous lesbians and women scorned. It begins with a very graphic murder (done amid one of the inexplicable from character’s perspective straight sex scenes). Then it rewinds a day to show the whys of it all. Turns out that the murderess, Rei (who struts through the entire movie like a model that she is), has a perfectly nice life with an adoring live in girlfriend (the only realistic, likeable and decent character in this entire production who barely gets any screen time). And then Rei gets a phone call that blasts her right into the past reuniting her with the object of her youth’s obsession, Nanae (who you might just refer to as piñata, since that seems to be her life’s trajectory). Seriously, (almost) everyone is this movie takes a swing at Nanae, she spends all of the movie black and blue Most notably her dearly beloved, who has beaten her terrible during his latest jealous rage. What’s a girl to do but track down her old lesbian flame and ask her to kill the guy? Mind you, this romance was never consummated, though Rei tried and tried, going as far as buying Nanae’s affections when they were younger. And yet, despite that and despite being out of each other’s lives for ten years and despite having a nice life, Rei immediately throws it all away…for love. And goes to murder. And afterwards the two, having no other plans or possibilities, drive off into the sunset. Only it isn’t quite like that. That would have been easy. Maybe even fun. No, you don’t get that. You get long, longing looks, odd sparse dialogue, another straight sex scene and lots, lots, lots, lots, lots of tears. It’s a very soggy movie. They scream, they fight, they cry, they make up, they give up, they rally, they scream, fight, cry some more. By the time they get together they must be as exhausted as the viewers are, which would explain their underwhelming sexual performances. If you’re thinking wow, this reviewer has really disliked the sex scenes and thus is bashing the entire movie…here’s some objectivity. I really enjoy foreign cinema, though it depends on a country. I love learning about different cultures, though. To that end I’ve read at least three nonfiction books about Japan and watched a bunch of documentary programs, one even focused on the sexual culture there (essentially repressed with oases of kink). I’m not sure this movie goes a long way to represent Japanese culture one way or another. It might have. Just as it might have dedicated more time to dealing with the social class differences (something very prevalent in the Rei/Nakae’s dynamic), just like it might have said more about homosexual and gender idealogy, acceptance, etc. (barely grazed in the scene with Rei’s abandoned lover and her mother). But all of that, all the things that might have been significant and important in this movie just got washed away with all the tears and buried under all the tediously drawn out melodrama. Lamentably so. And then it’s finally over and it’s like whew, so that was that. What a crappy execution of a potentially fun idea. Outside of some unintentionally comedic moments and some interesting cultural perspective there’s absolutely nothing to warrant throwing away 142 minutes of your life on this. What a disappointing ride this turned out to be.
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