An unusual plot with an emotionally driven story filled with intriguing and well developed characters. Though the portrayal of sexual minorities are stereotypical for the sake of story, it allows the audience for a conversation, and introspect on Mysogeny, poverty, lack of acceptance in Japanese Society. A reconsiderable performance from Kusanagi and Mizukawa. A promising performance from Hattori, and Uchida's surpricing direction.
2 Reviews
Shallow, stereotypical and outdated
RainbowSawako3 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
First of all, I must mention that the performances by the cast members were magnificent. Their subtle yet powerful acting propelled the whole movie.
However, the story was all over the place with extremely shallow writing and direction. It only highlighted the ignorance and prejudices held by the cis-male director. It's clear not enough research was done on the trans-people and the director is only portraying them the way "he wants to see them"; that is pitiful minority who live unhappily in the gutters.
I mean, a trans-woman who dies due to a bad gender reaffirmation surgery received in Thailand? This movie is, if I'm not mistaken, set in 2020's Tokyo. Tokyo has plenty of gender clinics with state of the art medical technology. While it is popular for Japanese trans-people to go to Thailand for surgery, they still go to the gender clinic on a regular basis for check ups and hormone injections. And Japan has a very adequate health care system. In other words, it is unrealistic that the protagonist had to die in the end. Obviously the director wanted to see her dead, just because.
Also what bothered me was the fact the trans-woman who hates children suddenly develops maternal affection for her niece with whom she's spent only a short period of time. Come on! The idea that femininity and maternal instinct come hand in hand is shortsighted and even misogynist.
And the stereotypical ways in which cabaret girls, club hostesses and prostitutes were portrayed were an eye-sore to say the least.
Nothing about this movie, except for acting, is believable. I would not recommend this movie if you're after entertainment.
However, the story was all over the place with extremely shallow writing and direction. It only highlighted the ignorance and prejudices held by the cis-male director. It's clear not enough research was done on the trans-people and the director is only portraying them the way "he wants to see them"; that is pitiful minority who live unhappily in the gutters.
I mean, a trans-woman who dies due to a bad gender reaffirmation surgery received in Thailand? This movie is, if I'm not mistaken, set in 2020's Tokyo. Tokyo has plenty of gender clinics with state of the art medical technology. While it is popular for Japanese trans-people to go to Thailand for surgery, they still go to the gender clinic on a regular basis for check ups and hormone injections. And Japan has a very adequate health care system. In other words, it is unrealistic that the protagonist had to die in the end. Obviously the director wanted to see her dead, just because.
Also what bothered me was the fact the trans-woman who hates children suddenly develops maternal affection for her niece with whom she's spent only a short period of time. Come on! The idea that femininity and maternal instinct come hand in hand is shortsighted and even misogynist.
And the stereotypical ways in which cabaret girls, club hostesses and prostitutes were portrayed were an eye-sore to say the least.
Nothing about this movie, except for acting, is believable. I would not recommend this movie if you're after entertainment.
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