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Review of “Love My Life”

Love My Life is a wonderfully offbeat and colorful independent feature from Japan.

Directed by Koji Kawano and starring Rei Yoshii and Asami Imajuku, the movie is a cute, indie-rock-infused coming-of-age tale about a university student and her first girlfriend. At once refreshingly honest and incredibly upbeat, it manages to avoid the pitfalls of most lesbian films and proves to be a successful adaptation of the manga on which it’s based.

The film opens on 20-somethings Eri (Imajuku) and Ichiko (Yoshii) in bed together, making out and discussing whether Ichiko should tell her father about their relationship. Fearful of his reaction but perpetually chipper, Ichiko goes ahead and introduces Eri to her free-spirited writer father.

While this would normally be the culmination of a film (or at least a major plot point), the scene is low-key and comfortable. Ichiko’s father accepts Eri right away, even joking that she reminds him of Ichiko’s late mother. It’s refreshing – especially considering the homophobic reaction our heroine (along with the audience) was expecting – and it sets the tone for the rest of the film.

For the better part of the movie, we follow Ichiko through her adventures in love and life: taking classes at the university, cavorting with Eri, and working at a trendy little record store. Scattered throughout the fun, chaotic meanderings of her life are serious conversations about what it means to be gay in modern Japan, from coming out to finding a place in the fabric of society.

Her father is a great source of these heart-to-hearts, as is her unhappy closeted best friend, Take. To cheer up Take, the doggedly optimistic Ichiko exclaims: “Look at Elton John. He came right out and got married!”

The film mainly focuses on the relationship between Eri and Ichiko, which is as sweet as it is predictable. In a clear case of opposites attracting, bubbly Ichiko is drawn to somber, sexy Eri, a super-serious pre-law student.

Eri’s work ethic, we later learn, stems from a desire to prove her worth to her cold, unloving lawyer father. This sets up the crucial dramatic tension: Can Eri loosen up and find her own voice instead of angrily vying for her father’s approval? Can Ichiko grow up and get serious about her own life?

More than just a few bumps on the road to domestic bliss, these issues put a severe damper on their relationship. Overall, it’s a reworking of the classic “girl meets girl, girl loses girl, girl gets girl back” paradigm. And though it isn’t very deep or original, it works well here.

The film’s second major focus is Ichiko’s family. After Dad meets Eri, Ichiko gets the shock of her life when her father exclaims: “You really are our daughter. I’m gay, and so was your mother.” Ichiko’s discovery about her parents serves as the plot’s backbone and provides interesting commentary on the social status of LGBT people in Japan.

She meets her father’s lover and realizes how difficult it has been for him to live a double life throughout the years. In a particularly stark scene, they discuss the sacrifices her father had to make in order to save face for his daughter.

Later, she encounters her mother’s ex on the beach with her new partner. It’s made clear that her parents loved one another as a link to Ichiko, and that the situation provided a good environment for her. But living secret lives was clearly a tremendous burden for them both.

The gay characters in the film are forced to make an uncomfortable choice between their heterosexual, nuclear family and a love relationship with a same-sex partner. Ichiko’s parents tried to have both but still needed to keep up a charade, living closeted lives.

Take sums up the film’s position quite succinctly: “People like us haven’t made it into society yet. People put us down … but I guess all we can do is make the best of it.”

Love My Life spends a great deal of time analyzing family relationships, and the contrast between the two father-daughter relationships is significant. Ichiko’s father is clearly the “good” parent, a man who is comfortable discussing intimate matters with his daughter and encourages her in all of her endeavors. Eri’s father, on the other hand, is a harsh caricature, disapproving of Eri’s lifestyle and her efforts to become a lawyer. No wonder Ichiko is happy and well-adjusted while Eri is unsettled and insecure.

The acting is excellent, and the characters are incredibly likable and sympathetic (save for Eri’s homophobic father). While Yoshii convincingly brings Ichiko from her childish early state to a mature – though no less bubbly – young woman, Imajuku steals every scene as Eri. They share a wonderful, natural chemistry, making the couple (and their brief love scenes) quite believable.

Ira Ishida is excellent as Ichiko’s father, giving him a remarkably down-to-earth quality. If ever there were a hall of fame for cool dads, surely this character would deserve a spot.

The film’s overall aesthetic is breezy and fun, true to the original comic. The music and pacing are energetic and emotional, much like Ichiko. And visually, Love My Life feels like a mash-up between a particularly pretty music video and a serious documentary, with plenty of simple camera setups and handheld shots.

The film isn’t perfect. It can be saccharine enough to induce headaches. Ichiko is quite likable but begins the film with enough doe-eyed schoolgirl wonder to fill eight Sailor Moon episodes. Also, some of the dialogue is confusing, possibly because it has been translated.

And the scene where a mildly infatuated Ichiko kisses a Mohawked customer at her record store feels out of place. The woman never returns to the store and it’s unclear what she represents. Unfaithfulness? Rebellion? Or does she merely signal an obsession with punk hairstyles? When Ichiko confesses her indiscretion to Eri, both shrug it off as unimportant, so the entire affair seems pointless.

Another subplot focuses on an awkward student who develops a crush on Take. When he later comes out to her and she accepts him, perhaps this thread redeems itself. But it exists mainly for comic relief and is a bit of a throwaway.

Love My Life doesn’t bring anything radically new to the table, nor does it toy with proven cinematic formulas. But everything it does, it does well.

The film is simple, feel-good fun with enough semi-serious discussion to keep it from being total fluff. And as one of the brightest and happiest lesbian films in recent history, it’s well worth checking out as it makes the LGBT festival rounds in the coming months.

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