In Japan, star-crossed stories are a common theme in the movies. Rather than the conventional themes of disapproving families or societies, however, it is usually illnesses that force couples to part. Sometimes this does not culminate in tragedy as in “The 8-Year Engagement”, a 2017 hit film by Takahisa Zeze where the protagonist comes out of coma and marries his loverhusband.
This is not your usual movie though as Eiji Uchida’s “Silent Love” introduces another dimension to this traditional trope both lovers suffer from severe disabilities: Mika (Minami Hamabe) a blind aspiring pianist whose sight was taken away by an accident while Aoi (Ryosuke Yamada), who works at her music school, has lost ability of speech due to some wound earned during brawl on streets.
The movie may be full of drama but it isn’t an original story like his “Midnight Swan,” which did very well at the box office and won several national awards last year. However, the first one is true about Japan’s LGBTQ+ people’s marginalized in its society hence today’s film feels fake outdated and old-fashioned sometimes going down into stereotyped action sequences that could belong elsewhere.
Furthermore, Uchida’s two leads less known than Tsuyoshi Kusanagi from Midnight Swan- don’t bring much depth or subtlety to their stereotypes characters. Even actors better than Kusanagi were unable to save this banal script despite winning several prizes for best hammy performance from a transgender entertainer.
Mika tries to kill herself on top of a building when Aoi stops her there; she doesn’t acknowledge that he has saved her life; otherwise. He shuts himself off unable to say even one word to her when they pass by each other later on campus. The next time however becomes her silent guard yet seeming stalker if you are against his affection for her.
Eventually, Mika and Aoi establish a tenuous line of communication through a bell she had dropped on the roof that he rings later. When she wants to practice on an off-limits piano in one of the rooms, Aoi finds the key, lets her in and follows her inside. This thrills him but disappoints her because her hand was injured during the crash.
And then she asks him to play something for her thinking he is somebody else. So desperate to please, he pretends to hire Kitamura (Shuhei Nomura), a good-looking conceited pianist to do it instead. But since he is heavily indebted owing to gambling at a secret casino; Kitamura agrees on condition that they pay upfront causing further impoverishment for Aoi who already has no money.
At this stage I expected an ironic O.-Henry-like twist think “The Gift of the Magi” transposed into modern-day Japan yet what followed was more Japanese manga-esque with its loud noises and bullets.
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