Kakera review (tbc)

First-time director Momoko Ando’s wistful, grungily stylish lesbian love story, based on cult manga Love Vibes, casts perky J-pop star Hikari Mitsushima cleverly against type as doleful student Haru, yoked to a cheating boyfriend until free and frank Riko (Eriko Nakamura) falls for her. After an engaging, gently comic start to their affair, all cute montages and tentative kisses, the film gets fatally bogged down in Haru’s dithery vacillations between her lovers. Ando’s charming real-time observation of everyday routines doesn’t speed anything up, either. Think Eric Rohmer with noodles, AC-DC angst, and a little bisexual bar-hopping, basically.

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