Love My Life: Film Shows What It's Like to be a Lesbian in Tokyo

I just watched a movie called Love My Life. Like many great contemporary Japanese movies, it's based on a manga. This one explores the issues surrounding gays and lesbians in Japan. The main character is a young woman named Ichiko. She has a female lover, and decides one day that she'll come out to her widower dad. He's pleasantly surprised—you truly are a child of me and mom, he says happily. I'm gay, and so was your mom! Ichiko's best friend at school is gay; so is the mysterious girl with the mohawk who frequents her record store.

It's a lot harder to come out in Tokyo than it is in San Francisco. While the characters toy with the idea of coming out, in most instances  it's never really a real option. But the film, directed by Koji Kawano, is full of interesting observations of life in general, about how often the most meaningful things in life come out of the worst experiences, how family influences the person you become as an adult, and why love sometimes has to wait. All themes that are more interesting when explored via an intimate relationship between two pretty girls. And yes, they get naked at the end.

Comments

[Maaza]

Hey Lisa,

Long time reader first time poster, this movie looks really interesting i'm definately going to check it out. I am new to the japanese cinema scene but definitely a big time fan (i just starting watching movies like ping pong survive style 6 and nana just after i got back from there). Do you know a site that would list out a lot of asian movies w/ reviews that would be aweome. and please please please write about more movies im sure you've watched a million of them.

thanks,
ananth

[Jenanime]

I JUST added this to my queue at Netflix, and then clicked over to see if there was a new post here! How interesting. I am very excited to see this now. Thanks for posting about this. ;)

[nyankobrulee]

The manga is soooo much better (by Yamaji Ebine). Ichiko is depicted in the movie as such a bubblegum pop girl... Eri on the other hand is pretty good.