''Love Life'' () is a 2022 Japanese-French drama film written and directed by Kōji Fukada. Set in contemporary Japan, the film is inspired by song of the same name recorded in the album "Love Life", released by musician Akiko Yano in 1991. It revolves around Taeko and her husband, Jiro facing "love" and "life". The film was selected 'In competition' section of

79th Venice International Film Festival The 79th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 31 August to 10 September 2022. Juries Main Competition (Venezia 79) * Julianne Moore, American actress and author (Jury President) * Mariano Cohn, Argentine director, screenw ...

, where it competed for

Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...

award and had its premiere on 5 September 2022.

Synopsis

The film follows a married woman, Taeko, who lives happily with her husband, Jiro. She decides to care for long-lost Park, father of her son Keita, when Park reappears deaf, ill, and homeless.

Cast

* Fumino Kimura as Taeko *

Kento Nagayama is a Japanese actor. He has appeared in more than 30 films since 2008. Nagayama has two elder brothers who are also actors: Tatsuya and Eita is a Japanese actor from Tokyo. He has appeared in many Japanese television dramas and movies; mo ...

as Jirō * Atom Sunada as Park * Hirona Yamazaki as Yamazaki, Jiro's ex-girlfriend * Misuzu Kanno as Myoe, Jiro's mother * Tomorowo Taguchi as Makoto * Tetsuta Shimada as Keita, Taeko's son *

Mito Natsume is a Japanese actress, model, presenter, and singer. She debuted as a singer on April 8, 2015, with the song "Maegami Kirisugita," which was produced by Japanese musician Yasutaka Nakata. Background Mito started working as a model in 2010 ...

as a staff member who works in the same place as Taeko

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on 5 September 2022, and competed for

in 'In competition' section. It was released in Japan on 9 September 2022, and held its North American Premiere at

2022 Toronto International Film Festival The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, the 47th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, is scheduled to be held from September 8 to 18, 2022. Festival organizers have indicated that the 2022 festival will be staged primar ...

in 'Contemporary World Cinema' section on 12 September 2022 at Scotiabank Theatre, Toronto. MK2 Films have taken the distribution rights of the film for Europe in February 2022. It also made it to 'A Window on Asian Cinema' section of

27th Busan International Film Festival The 27th Busan International Film Festival () was held from October 5 at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea till October 14. This year, the festival restarted events and program sections which were not conducted due to COVID-19 for la ...

and was screened in October 6, 2022.

Reception

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 6.50/10. Guy Lodge of '' Variety'' wrote: "While it’s impossible not to be affected at some level by its characters’ hellish plight, the predominant softness of tone here tends toward the wispy." David Ehrlich of IndieWire graded the film with B+ and wrote, "An enormously poignant melodrama told at the volume of a broken whisper, Kōji Fukada’s ''Love Life'' represents a major breakthrough for a filmmaker who’s found the perfect story for his probing but distant style."

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Love Life
at Venice Film Festival * * {{Kōji Fukada 2022 films 2022 drama films Films shot in Japan French drama films Japanese drama films 2020s French films