Comments by Wong Lung Hsiang

Director: Shindo Kaze
Writing Credits: Shindo Kaze
Cast: Okuno Mika, Fujimura Chika, Nagasawa Toshiya
Genre: Comedy
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year Released: 2000
Runtime: 78 min

A wonderful lesbian movie with surprisingly realistic and yet bittersweet portrayal of the pair of heroines. Like Barren Illusions and Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together, Love/Juice consists of bits and pieces in the day-to-day lives of the couple. However, it's closer to Happy Together as it subtly depicts the psyche of both young ladies through their behaviors (unlike French psychodramas that often leverage too much on dialogues). Even more engaging is that the female director has successfully transformed the urban setting into the atmosphere of a peaceful little town - something that Japanese indie directors are good at (my favorite ones would be Ichikawa Jun's Tokyo trilogy: Tokyo Kyodai, Tokiwa: The Manga Apartment, and Tokyo Lullaby; and Morita Yoshimitsu's Kitchen).