Parade

February 24, 2010

Parade

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2010 Well-known director Isao Yukisada (Go; Crying out Love, In the Center of the World) returns with a flick based on a book by award-winning novelist Shuichi Yoshida. Four twentysomethings live together in a 2LDK in Setagaya-ku and pursue their various interests: Kotomi (Shihori Kanjiya) is a failing actress […]

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Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2010

Well-known director Isao Yukisada (Go; Crying out Love, In the Center of the World) returns with a flick based on a book by award-winning novelist Shuichi Yoshida. Four twentysomethings live together in a 2LDK in Setagaya-ku and pursue their various interests: Kotomi (Shihori Kanjiya) is a failing actress who’s in love with a busy soap opera star; Mirai (Karina) has a good job as an illustrator but is an alcoholic; Ryosuke (Keisuke Koide) shows no passion for anything; and Naoki (Tatsuya Fujiwara), who works for a film distribution company, seems disturbed beneath his apparently normal exterior. Their world is shaken a little when rent boy Satoru (Kento Hayashi) joins the fray and, in an unrelated development, the group starts to suspect that the apartment next door is a brothel. Yet even these sexual intrigues don’t offer much drama. While Yukisada uses his camera well, framing shots beautifully, it all unfolds without the slightest bit of emotional intensity. (118 mins)