I'd like to start off by saying that it's entirely possible I'm just a spoiled American. I'm not at all familiar with what directors in Japan have to go through to get LGBT movies made. That being said, it's ALSO entirely possible that men just freaking suck at making lesbian films.
My first concern with lesbian movies is always whether or not the female characters are even going to be interesting. It's hard to write a compelling female character (for some reason), harder still to write two, and the odds drop to damn near impossible when you add male creator to that. So were either of the two female leads remotely interesting? Nope!
Second concern - are my wlw characters going to be sexually assaulted and/or abused by men during the film? You betcha! Now I'm not gonna whine about the husband abusing the main love interest - it's kinda there in the summary. But was it really necessary to then make sure that if the one character got physically abused, we gotta make sure the other one gets sexually assaulted? Why though? (no really - WHY? I can't even figure out what the purpose of that scene even was???)
This movie is an aimless film with no purpose that is really just 70% crying separated by random sex scenes (2/3 were not even LGBT, fyi). The main characters motivations for most of what they do past the summary is pretty unclear and when it is made clear, unbelievable. Rei and Nanae are intended to be star crossed lovers that would kill for each other, but when the movie starts they haven't spoken in 10 years, had never actually dated, and one of them is already in a loving and seemingly fulfilling relationship with another woman that she immediately ditches for her one true love. Worse yet - the creators seemingly KNOW they can't make these two interesting. That's why literally most of the film is music overlaid scenes of the two just laughing like they're in a yogurt commercial, enjoying each other's conversation....which we aren't allowed to hear, because again, they didn't bother to give them personalities or make sure they actually had a relationship with which to build the main premise of the movie off of.
All in all 1/10, I've probably seen worse lesbian movies but I'm struggling to come up with one.
My first concern with lesbian movies is always whether or not the female characters are even going to be interesting. It's hard to write a compelling female character (for some reason), harder still to write two, and the odds drop to damn near impossible when you add male creator to that. So were either of the two female leads remotely interesting? Nope!
Second concern - are my wlw characters going to be sexually assaulted and/or abused by men during the film? You betcha! Now I'm not gonna whine about the husband abusing the main love interest - it's kinda there in the summary. But was it really necessary to then make sure that if the one character got physically abused, we gotta make sure the other one gets sexually assaulted? Why though? (no really - WHY? I can't even figure out what the purpose of that scene even was???)
This movie is an aimless film with no purpose that is really just 70% crying separated by random sex scenes (2/3 were not even LGBT, fyi). The main characters motivations for most of what they do past the summary is pretty unclear and when it is made clear, unbelievable. Rei and Nanae are intended to be star crossed lovers that would kill for each other, but when the movie starts they haven't spoken in 10 years, had never actually dated, and one of them is already in a loving and seemingly fulfilling relationship with another woman that she immediately ditches for her one true love. Worse yet - the creators seemingly KNOW they can't make these two interesting. That's why literally most of the film is music overlaid scenes of the two just laughing like they're in a yogurt commercial, enjoying each other's conversation....which we aren't allowed to hear, because again, they didn't bother to give them personalities or make sure they actually had a relationship with which to build the main premise of the movie off of.
All in all 1/10, I've probably seen worse lesbian movies but I'm struggling to come up with one.