This complex, captivating drama from Kôji Fukada, an MSPIFF favorite (The Harmonium, A Girl Missing, MSPIFF 2017 and 2020, respectively) features stunning performances by Fumino Kimura and Kento Nagayama, and has been widely regarded as the director’s masterpiece.
Taeko (Kimura) and Jiro ( Nagayama) seem to be an ideal couple–they have an intelligent six-year-old son, they live in a nice apartment, and are fixtures in their community. And yet, at a surprise 65th birthday party for Jiro’s father, the tension is thick enough to suffocate everyone in the room–Taeko and Jiro have only been married a short while, and the path to their union was fraught with familial intrigue, broken hearts and deceit. And when an unbearable tragedy strikes, it further exposes fissures in all of their lives. But could the grief and heartache actually bring everyone to a state of harmonious grace? Kôji Fukada, who favors the understated over the melodramatic, again brings his subdued style to Love Life, and festival goers around the world have been on the edge of their seats in this moving tale of love and forgiveness. “??[A] vital melodrama about the difficulty of moving on.” –Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
Director Biography
As a child, Tokyo-born Kôji Fukada devoured movies from his father’s VHS collection and went to study at the Film School of Tokyo. His films include Hospitalité (2010), Sayônara (2015), and the MSPIFF selections Harmonium (2016) and A Girl Missing (2019). Love Life (2022) is his most recent feature.