''The Kiss'' ( ja, 接吻) is a 2007 Japanese crime drama film directed by

Kunitoshi Manda is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and film critic. Biography Kunitoshi Manda was a student at Rikkyo University, where he took Shigehiko Hasumi's filmology class. Manda directed his first feature film, '' Unloved'', in 2001. It won the ...

, starring

Eiko Koike is a Japanese actress. Biography Koike starred in Kunitoshi Manda's film '' The Kiss''. She appeared in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2012 television drama ''Penance,'' and co-starred in Junji Sakamoto's ''A Chorus of Angels'' with Sayuri Yoshinaga. She ...

Etsushi Toyokawa is a Japanese actor. Biography Born in Yao, Osaka, he studied at Shimizudani High School is a prestigious Japanese public co-educational senior high school (secondary school), located in Tennōji-ku, Osaka, Japan. Overview Shimizudan ...

and Toru Nakamura.

Plot

Kyoko Endo (

), a young and lonely female office worker, falls in love with Akio Sakaguchi (

), a man in prison for killing a whole family, at first sight when she watches a television news program telling about him. But Hasegawa ( Toru Nakamura), his lawyer, worries about their relationship.

Cast

as Kyoko Endo *

as Akio Sakaguchi * Toru Nakamura as Hasegawa

Release

The 9th

Jeonju International Film Festival Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF, Korean: 전주국제영화제, Hanja: 全州國際映畵祭) is an Asian film festival. It was launched in 2000 as a non-competitive film festival with partial competition. It introduces independent a ...

opened with the world premiere of ''The Kiss'' in May 2008.

Reception

Lee Hyo-won of ''

The Korea Times ''The Korea Times'' is the oldest of three English-language newspapers published daily in South Korea. It is a sister paper of the ''Hankook Ilbo'', a major Korean language daily; both are owned by Dongwha Enterprise, a wood-based manufacturer ...

'' said, "The film traces delicate human relationships and all its melodrama, all the while expressing ― or suppressing ― emotions with restraint." Japanese film critic

Inuhiko Yomota is a Japanese author, cultural essayist, translator and film historian. His real name is . Biography Inuhiko Yomota was born on February 20, 1953, in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, but grew up in Tokyo. He graduated from the University of To ...

said, "I think it's a fantastic film." The film was listed by the ''

Film Comment ''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film Co ...

'' magazine as their "18 Films to Look Out For" in 2008 and Japanese film critic

Shigehiko Hasumi (born 29 April 1936 in Roppongi, Tokyo) is a film critic and an academic researcher on French literature from Japan. He was president of the University of Tokyo from 1997 to 2001. Life and work Hasumi's father Shigeyasu was a professor at Kyot ...

said, "The ending is astonishing and all three actors are excellent, in particular

, who plays the young woman."

References

External links

* Japanese crime drama films 2007 films 2007 crime drama films 2000s Japanese films {{2000s-crime-drama-film-stub