LOVE LIFE - Mark Reviews Movies

Love Life, Oscilloscope Laboratories

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 10, 2023

A moment of shock and horror defines the course of Love Life, but it doesn't redefine writer/director Koji Fukada's approach to this quiet drama about things left unspoken and unresolved. It's a considered and patient film, which allows us to see how flawed but well-intentioned its characters are, while also making that shocking shift in the plot even more jarring.

It primarily revolves around Taeko (Fumino Kimura), who lives in an apartment with her second husband Jiro (Kento Nagayama) and 6-year-old son Keita (Tetta Shimada). At the start, things appear happy for the family, as Jiro plans a celebration party for his wife's son, since the boy won a board game tournament, and a surprise birthday gathering for his father (played by Tomorowo Taguchi).

Slowly, tensions reveal themselves. Jiro had been dating Yamazaki (Hirona Yamazaki) before meeting and marrying Taeko, and the three of them work in the same social services office. Meanwhile, Taeko's father-in-law disapproves of his son being married to a divorced woman with a child, and even though Jiro's mother (played by Misuzu Kanno) tries to keep the peace, it's obvious she's not too happy with the arrangement, either.

Without any warning, Koji renders most of this established drama irrelevant. Tragedy suddenly befalls (in a series of quick cuts of close-ups that demolish the slow pacing and longer shots until that point, making the scene all the more kinetically upsetting), and the family must try to find some way to move forward with lives that feel as if they should simply stop right then and there.

The rest of the story, of course, is about grief, but the more specific element of this study of loss is how these characters attempt to transfer their feelings to other people and situations. Jiro becomes caught up in moving his parents to a new apartment, while spending time with Yamazaki, either for closure—for himself, her, or both of them—or for something else (It's clear he doesn't know himself, since everything in his life is in turmoil now).

Meanwhile, Taeko must deal with the sudden reappearance of her ex-husband Park (Atom Sunada), who is hearing impaired and speaks via sign language, into her life. Years ago, he had left her and the couple's son without a trace, but whatever ill will she might have felt all this time starts to fade. Right now, Taeko just sees someone she once loved—or still loves—in need of help, and with little else to do apart from feeling the weight of a devastating loss, she offers it.

There's a degree of compassion for wounded and flawed people here that's admirable. Koji allows his characters to make mistakes without judgment, as they come to some understanding of what and, more importantly, who remains in the lingering shadow of such a terrible, unexpected tragedy. Somehow, Love Life does arrive at some hope in the midst of what happens, but wisely, the film finds only a sliver of it.

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