Film Review - Love Life (2022)

There is an apartment at the centre of Love Life. As the film opens, the apartment is filled with noise and love, paper decorations adorn the walls and tinsel hangs from the ceiling. A busy married couple lives there and they are celebrating the birthday and academic achievement of their young son. Over the course of Love Life, this apartment changes irrevocably and where is was once the hub of this family’s life, it becomes something quite different.

Written and directed by Koji Fukada, Love Life follows Taeko. Married previously to the father of her son Keita, who left them when Keita was a baby, Taeko has found happiness with her new husband Jiro. After an accident, Taeko’s ex-husband Park reappears in her life. Homeless and unwell, Park struggles to apply for benefits due to his deafness and others’ lack of ability to communicate with him. Feeling responsible for his welfare, Taeko begins to care for him which puts strain on her marriage to Jiro which is already under pressure due to the accident.

The film’s title, which is taken from a Japanese pop song, is almost a misnomer. Whilst the film is about the life and loves of Taeko, ‘Love Life’ suggests a much more playful sort of a film. Perhaps one where romantic drama is the only bone to contend with and Taeko will be torn between two men. Nothing could be further from the truth. Love Life is a profoundly sad film. This is a film where Taeko’s life is changed in an instant, in a sucker punch of a scene that leaves the audience to watch on in stunned disbelief. What happens is so unfathomable, so distressing, that it is almost tempting to turn Love Life off at that point. However, Fukada does not use this moment to turn Love Life into a big, loud film with tragedy at the forefront. Rather the film carries on quietly and thoughtfully. The minutiae of the tragedy is dealt with, and life must go on. But how can it? And that unanswerable question is what keeps the audience utterly engaged.

Love Life has an incredibly strong cast with Fumino Kimura and Kento Nagayama, as Taeko and Jiro respectively, as the stand outs. Their depiction as a once happy couple who now do not know how to treat each other feels incredibly realistic and relatable.

A devastatingly poignant portrait of its subject matter told in a restrained but impactful way, Fukada’s Love Life has themes and moments that will echo for a long time after the credits have rolled.