LOVE MY LIFE

This gay-girl love story is adapted from one of those super-romanticized manga comics, and it feels that way.

It is hard to be mean to such a well-meaning film as Love My Life, a cute-as-button story of a gay girl in love in modern Japan. There are really no bad guys in the film, and characters coming out as gay leads to almost no repercussions. It is a sunshiney utopia of gay acceptance. So, what's not to like? Well, it gets a little boring.

Ichiko (Rei Yoshii) is a perpetually smiley and cute college student who seems to have popped out of a Hello Kitty cartoon, all pink hearts and cute giggles. She is in love with her girlfriend Eri (Asami Imajuku), a surprisingly (in contrast) sullen law student. It is hard to see the chemistry, but I was willing to go with it.

The film starts with Ichiko's declaration that she is going to come out to her father (Ira Ishida), a bookish and kind of goofy fellow who waxes poetic about the glories of eggplant. He, it turns out, is not too shocked, really, that his daughter is gay... because, well, he and Ichiko's late mother were gay, too! What?!?! This really ought to be a great twist, and it does wipe the smile off of Ichiko's face, if just for a moment. Ichiko grows up, just a bit, as she realizes how complicated her own parents' lives were, as they were not publicly out, though they had an agreement to have their own lovers on the side. The complexities of wanting desperately to have a family (as they did) clashed with their desire to be with someone they love. In fact, their story is almost more interesting than Ichiko's, and I would have liked to know more.

Instead, sullen Eri decides to temporarily dump clingy Ichiko while she studies, sending the poor girl into a tailspin of teen romantic angst. And the tailspin goes on and on. A side incident involving a cute punk girl at the record store adds a little spark, but it truly becomes tiresome watching Ichiko pout and count the days until Eri decides to answer her text messages.

All in all, Love My Life was a bit too girly for my taste. Apparently it is adapted from one of those super-romanticized manga comics, and it feels that way. If you have little patience for that wide-eyed style of storytelling, you may be a bit bored with Love My Life. And that is too bad. Because for all of its faults, I don't think I've ever seen an Asian film that is so relentlessly gay-positive, and I have to give the film a lot of credit for that.