Sayonara kabukichô

Relationships fall apart, or become stronger, when dalliances and alternate lives are uncovered. This insightful and vibrant film explores the connections, both tenuous and binding, between a variety of couples who enter the Tokyo underworld. A red-light district hotel manager confronts two unexpected and shocking guests, a Korean escort underestimates the strength of love, and fugitives from justice spar with detectives with secrets of their own that they wish to keep under earth. The film delves into the secret lives of the characters with combined humor and seriousness. It is a difficult task, yet the director manages it deftly. The emotional impact is created in part by hand-held camera work. I am not usually a fan of this, yet here it works extremely well. Some touching film themes revolve around how much we are willing to fight for our partners and how far we are willing to go in letting them make their own choices. "Every one of your little gestures," a woman tells her boyfriend at a possible point of no return "meant so much to me." I see much of my life in each of the characters, and that is part of the beauty of this film. I felt like I entered the life of each character and was not simply watching them. Seen at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.