THE LIES SHE LOVED (2017)
A quiet drama about a woman, who finds out her boyfriend is not who he says she is, compels with its focus on characters.
Director Kazuhito Nakaye
Writers Kazuhito Nakaye, Nozomi Kondo
Starring Masami Nagasawa, Issei Takahashi, Kotaro Yoshida
Masami Nagasawa plays Yukari Kawahara, a researcher for a beverages company, who lives with her boyfriend Kippei Kodei, played by Issei Takahashi. Kippei is a quiet, unassuming doctor. The film makes it clear that Kawahara is a dedicated career woman who knows very well how lucky she is that her boyfriend is a caring man. In spite of being together for 5 years, Kippei is yet to meet Kawahara's parents, which seems odd in retrospect but while watching the movie was somewhat understandable. He seems to be an introverted guy who has a healthy internal life.
One night, instead of Kippei it's the police who show up at their apartment. They tell her that Kippei has had a hemorrhage, and collapsed in public. He was taken to hospital, where he is in a coma, and when police looked through his identification records, they found out that his credentials were faked. Kawahara is devastated to discover this. Did he love her truly, or was it an act as well? Eventually she decides to hire a detective to find out who her boyfriend really is.
The movie is a slow placed drama looking at the lives of 3 people. Mainly, it's about Kawahara, who realizes I that in spite of her outward appearance of independence, she really did love her boyfriend, and want their love to be as true as it is for her. The second is an investigation into Kippei, who it turns out, was spending his days in a café writing a novel. The third is the private investigator Takumi Kaibara (Kotaro Yoshida), who investigates Kippei's past from the clues found in his novel. His private life, which is in shambles, is nicely complimented by Kawahara's life, which he advices and sometimes admonishes her, could easily go his way, if she went down the same path of suspicion and cynicism as him.
As far as sentimental stories go, this is well done, with the mystery of Kippei's past looming in the storyline, and combining, not without subtlety, with Kawahara's mixed feelings of being deceived and the love she feels for Kippei, and her uncertainty about how she should go from there. There is genuine emotion in this movie, and although slow-moving, it keeps the emotion genuine and powerful, and the mystery, central yet subtle. The screenplay keeps the focus on Kawahara's journey, and thereby focuses our attention on her, and cuts distractions.
VERDICT: Slow, but enjoyable. For people who deeply were in love with someone who went through periods of doubt, surely
Direction 7
Acting 7
Music 7
Overall 7
