Ride or Die

I think that this movie show us the dark side of love, it show us what we would capable of when we love someone. The movie has a lot of nudity and blood at the beginning so don't see if you are sensitive.

Had potential story with good acting, expect it too dark for romance movie and also the pacing slow.

This is a well crafted movie with some beautiful dark romance. The story is all interesting, sweet, thrilling, sad and crazy, it's also well written and unfolds beautifully. Cinematography is nice as well. Lead performances are superb and the chemistry between them is awesome with an obvious passion. But it's nonsensical sometimes, and so long and slow-paced.

I admire this film for trying to tackle relatively stigmatized issues like LGBT and depression in Japan, but I feel like the director didn't really have a clear vision in mind when making this movie. Scenes are overly long and the movie very much does not follow the typical buildup-conflict-resolution structure that most movies have. It feels like they just put all the raw footage together and released it, without trying to edit/shorten any of the scenes. Even with all of that, our two characters barely get any background other than a few school flashbacks. There are just sooo many scenes that go on for wayyy too long and/or add nothing to the main narrative. If the director really wanted to try and flesh out so many different characters and motivations he should have pitched this as a short series rather than a movie. Those sort of long, hanging shots would be far more acceptable in a series than a movie. I suppose it might also be because this was based on a manga, and trying to cram in years worth of manga story into a movie, even a 2.5 hour one, doesn't really work unless you focus on a specific story beat. It's a shame, really, I think it's got a good premise just executed really poorly.

Thankfully, this movie is not a knock-off of Thelma and Louis. That said, it has its moments but also a lot of flaws.

The good: The subject of domestic abuse or LGBTQ is not often seen in Japanese cinema, so this movie is a welcomed rarity. The soundtrack is also interesting, as if it is trying to convince the viewer that they are watching merely a romantic movie.

The bad: The acting is too wooden at times. The dialogue sometimes sounds like exposition rather than organic conversation. The story at its very basic is not very believable. This last part is the worst, because the movie seems.to suggest that if you're LGBTQ, then you must have a mental problem.

Verdict: It's worth a watch, but really it's more of an unevenly told story about two lost women that is more a fantasy rather than an important dramatic commentary on societal norms versus those who are different in Japan.