Love/Juice

Our Rating: L Factor: Lesbian Film Short Take: Two friends live together in a tiny Tokyo apartment. Chinatsu is a lesbian in love with her friend, but Kyoko isn’t sure what she wants. Alternate Titles:
Year: 2000 Duration: 78 min Language: Japan/Japanese MPAA: Not Rated	Director: Kaze Shindo Writer: Kaze Shindo Starring: Mika Okuno, Chika Fujimura

Chinatsu (Mika Okuno) and Kyoko (Chika Fujimura) are young friends living together in a tiny Tokyo apartment so small that they share a single bed. Chinatsu is a lesbian with a thing for her friend, and Kyoko sometimes shares a kiss to help confuse the situation, but she really is interested in the young man who works in the fish store nearby. When Kyoko asks to watch Chinatsu masturbate to orgasm, the lines get even blurrier between friendship, love and sex.

Chinatsu finally tells Kyoko that she loves her and wants to have sex with her, and Kyoko is noncommittal, saying that she loves her too, but doesn’t feel like having sex right then. Kyoko just plays with her friend’s emotions, seemingly having no intention of ever having a romantic relationship, finally telling her to shut up and die as Chinatsu begs for her attention.

This leads Chinatsu to get a spine and stand up for herself. For some viewers, the gray between friendship and love may be a familiar and compelling story, but my intense dislike of Kyoko from the beginning made this one difficult to watch.

Director and writer Kaze Shindo received the Best New Director award at the Japan Independent Film Festival in 2001. Warning that this film also includes a rape scene. Beware of other similarly titled Japanese porn films while searching for this dvd. (AB)