&tunafished;

Boys Love is an original video which came out on DVD on 24 November 2006. I believe it was not released in theatres, due to its possibly sensitive subject apparent in its very title. As CDJapan puts it, it is “a story of male love” and a “great introduction to the world of BL”. But I don’t quite agree that is all to the film itself.

The film stars Takumi Saito and Yoshikazu Kotani, both who appeared in The Prince of Tennis movie as well as its musicals (participating in the successive generations of TeniMyu). The plot is relatively simple.

The movie tells the story of Akira Mamiya, a magazine editor who meets and interviews a young model, Noeru Kisaragi, and becomes sinfully attracted by him. Their love, however, is forbidden. Just doing his job, magazine editor Akira Mamiya (Yoshikazu Kotani) interviews high school model Noeru Kisaragi (Takumi Saito). Despite Noeru’s bad attitude, an enchanting picture of the ocean he draws leads Mamiya to invite him out for dinner afterwards. They connect at the restaurant, but while in the bathroom there Noeru solicits Mamiya sexually. The next morning, Noeru’s office calls the magazine office where Mamiya works. “Your editor was rude. Have him come and apologize.” When Mamiya goes to Noeru’s house to deliver the apology, he sees Noeru with a dirty-looking man. Mamiya is shocked to discover at that moment that his interest in Noeru goes beyond article research–he truly wants to know more about him.

(source: Wikipedia article)

It probably isn’t entirely fair for me to post about the movie when I couldn’t exactly understand 6/7 of the Japanese dialogue in the first place, thus possibly missing out on important points and references that were made in the film. However, if I consider what I can observe alone anyway, I would say that the film left me feeling quite let down.

All in all, the film basically discusses the subject of forbidden love between two males, and often exploits blatant displays of decadence to emphasize the undesirable nature of mere physical liaisons. This somtimes borders on misleading viewers to believe that sex is all there is to homosexual ‘love’. Yet on the other hand, it also juxtaposes the emotional relationship shared between the two male leads, in an apparently hopeful bid to offset the negative picture it had painted earlier. While it may be heartwrenching in some sense – pro-homosexuality/yaoi/slash audience is likely easily led to sympathize with the main characters, the film lacks an overall sense of completeness and beautiful melancholy which I must admit I expected and would have appreciated.

This is not to say it does not reach a decisive conclusion, because the eventual ending is without doubts. However, I still ended up feeling less than convinced. The actors’ performance contributes to this lack of conviction, as sympathy does not exactly develop into empathy, or is simply not given enough time to. While there were nuances of subtlety, other points in the film were either over- or under-stated, in a mocking myriad of inconsistency. A sense of detachment permeated my mind throughout, thus not triggering any major emotional reaction when I finally reached the end of the film. Additionally, the setting of the film is severely limited, the scenes bouncing between overused locations – the school rooftop, their apartments, the swimming pool. The plot is then compelled to unfold within such constraints and it is difficult to imagine it relating to a world beyond what has been concocted. Hence, once again, the notion of detachment. This quite disappointed me, because I believe that the film has undermined its own potential.

The trailer is available on YouTube, while the raw of the film has been uploaded here.
Additionally, the movie is also being uploaded by a few users, unsubbed, on YouTube.
A more detailed plot breakdown and review can be found here.