Japanese Reviews Reviews

Film Review: Rude To Love (2024) by Yukihiro Morigaki

Courtesy of KVIFF
In Morigaki's drama, one woman is re-gaining her forces to come to terms with ironic bad news

Momoko () has sacrificed a lot since the moment she decided to marry Mamoru (), a serial lover-impregnator/ divorcee, who has grown cold towards her in recent months. After eight years of marriage, there is barely anything that keeps the spark between the two burning, despite Momoko’s attempts to bring some life into their marital co-existence. Sensing that something is going terribly wrong, she tries to initiate some form of communication with her husband who even avoids eating dinner at home, repeatedly disregarding her efforts to meet his every wish. “You never say thank you!” she mutters during one of the rare occasions that he actually eats at home, to which he doesn’t react at all. His focus is somewhere else, and so are the words of kindness.

In ‘s script adaptation (together with Fumiko Suzuki) of ‘s eponymous novel “Rude to Love”, one woman is re-gaining her forces to come to terms with the ironic bad news that requires a full reset of a life she’s been building for almost a decade. Once upon a time, a relatively successful mid-scale manager in a big company, Momoko settled for the life of a housewife in a detached house that belongs to her mother-in-law (). It’s a boring, unfulfilled day-to-day existence that the woman fights with a part-time job, teaching a soapmaking course.

There is a thriller-like subplot in Morigaki’s take on the novel, and it involves a mysterious culprit who sets the neighborhood garbage on fire. Paired with the mysterious disappearance of Momoko’s beloved cat Pi-Chan, there is an extra layer of possibilities that the viewer believes to belong to the core story. Director of photography goes back to his experience with the horror genre (‘s “Monsters Club”, 2012) to create an unsettling atmosphere in moments where we are led to believe that something awful is about to happen.

The horror in “Rude To Love” hides behind simple, painful truths and clichés. With a couple of unexpected and for the story irrelevant events, Morigaki tries to infuse some excitement into his main protagonist’s life which mainly consists of dull, mundane chores and rituals. Eguchi delivers yet another brilliant performance as a woman determined not to give up on herself. Her character is uncompromisingly strong and defiant of authority and Japanese rules of conduct. Her pain and anger simply do not allow it. The seasoned Japanese actress infuses a dose of humour into the plot with her ability to switch from a state of melancholia to almost mechanical, trance-like movements mumbling something incomprehensible while plotting how to demolish the house.

Check also this video

There is a subtle contrast between the soft yellow colors brought by the daylight, bringing hope for the improvement of Momoko’s situation, that gradually get replaced by a darker palette once she is faced with a bitter truth that changes everything irreversibly to the worst. She is living through the same story from eight years ago, but this time as a woman left for a much younger version of herself. The twenty-seven-year-old beauty (Japanese model ) who sits opposite her is also trapped in a relationship with Mamoru through an unwanted pregnancy like she was once upon a time. The difference is that Momoko has no chance of having children anymore after a tragic experience in the past and she is condemned to accept her complete defeat. She is almost instantly hit by another kind of loss, this time on a professional level, which prompts her to make a couple of drastic changes.

“Rude To Love” is a drama about one woman’s personal nightmare constructed without the stereotypical bitterness, focusing on Momoko’s strength and resistance to injustices instead. The film world-premiered in the Crystal Globe Competition of , where we caught up with it.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

>