is a 2019 Japanese drama film directed by Takamasa Oe. It made its world premiere in the 28th

Rainbow Reel Tokyo Rainbow Reel Tokyo (Japanese language, Japanese: レインボー・リール東京 ''Reinbō rīru Tōkyō''), until 2016 known as Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, (Japanese language, Japanese: 東京国際レズビアン&ゲイ映� ...

festival on July 15, 2019. The film stars Joe Nakamura and Yohdi Kondo.

Cast

* Joe Nakamura as Kohei Kaido * Yohdi Kondo as Yutaka "Yuta" Imaizumi * Yoshiaki Umegaki as Priscilla * Reina Tasaki as Mizuna Kaido * Fumihiko Nakamura as Atsushi * Rai Minamoto as Mimosa * Flora Miwa as Rinka

Release

The film was played at festivals including the 2019

and Taoyuan Film Festivals and had a small general release in Japan, beginning on July 26 at UPLINK Kichijoji in Kichijoji, Tokyo and expanding on August 3 to cinemas in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

and

Himeji 260px, Himeji City Hall is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 525,682 in 227,099 households and a population density of 980 persons per km². The total area of the city is ...

. In June 2020, it became available internationally with subtitles in English, Chinese, Thai and Indonesian for subscribers to the

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

-based

streaming service provider An over-the-top media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributors of s ...

Gagaoolala.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from 18 critics of ''

Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese internet company originally formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! (later divested by Verizon into Altaba) and the Japanese company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Kioi Tower in the Tokyo Garden Terr ...

'', which gave the film an average of 3.56 stars. Asian Movie Pulse highlighted the taboo of

LGBT rights in Japan Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Japan face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, although the social component is more reliable than in many Asian countries. Same-sex sexual activity was criminalised ...

and highlighted the film in those aspects, though said that "while you can enjoy a movie that opens many colours of the rainbow and waves more than one flag, your enthusiasm might hit several walls" adding that "Unfortunately, the relationship and its hardships are the least interesting line in the narrative" and concluded that the film is "perplexing."

References

External links

* (in Japanese) * * {{IMDb title, id=9664838, title=Athlete 2019 films 2019 LGBT-related films Films set in Japan Gay-related films Japanese LGBT-related films 2010s Japanese-language films LGBT-related romantic drama films 2010s Japanese films Japanese romantic drama films