Review of Love My Life (2006) by Michael W — 28 Dec 2007

Eri is a serious, career oriented young woman who spends most of her time with her nose in a book studying to become a lawyer. Her younger friend Ichiko is quite a bit bubblier and fun loving, but possesses a gift for language and translation. While they could not be more different personality wise, something clicks between the two young women and they become quick friends after meeting each other at a dance club. However, this friendship is not quite the type found in such films as Kamizake Girls. Instead, Eri and Ichiko are lovers and during the time they have known each other their affection for each other has grown quite deep. However, besides a gay friend named Take, the young women have not revealed to anyone their relationship.

Ichiko takes the first step and introduces Eri to her father. She believes that because her father is a literary liberal that he will be quite open to her and Eriâ??s relationship and she is quite right. However, she learns a bit more than she bargained for when she learns not only is her father gay, but that her deceased mother was a lesbian. Apparently her father and mother were best friends and decided to marry after both of them broke up with their significant others. They did not â??loveâ?? each other in the â??traditionalâ?? sense, but they wanted a child, so Ichiko was born. Eriâ??s family is a more rigid and she is hesitant to speak out. What will become of the two lovers?

Although I have watched such films as Nakajima Takehiroâ??s Okoge and Hashiguchi Ryosukeâ??s A Touch of Fever and Like Grains of Sand which deal with the subject of male homosexuality. Love My Life is only the second film that I have watched on the topic of lesbianism in Japan. While the filmâ??s subject is quite promising, the execution falls pretty flat. The film opens well when it deals with issues such as â??coming outâ?? and introducing oneâ??s same sex lover to oneâ??s family, but other matters are handled rather ham-fisted such as the general repugnance felt by the general populace towards gays and lesbians. Also, the films subject matter derails quite unexpectedly somewhere in the middle of the film and I felt I was watching a completely different film. Love My Life is enjoyable, but, in my opinion, Shindo Kazeâ??s film Love/Juice is a better film dealing with similar themes.