Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

In a film strangely reminiscent of 'Past Lives', but with a very different feel, 'Love Life' explores Love and Life as past loves come back to haunt the lives of a Japanese couple.

In a wonderful, chaotic family, "The delicate domestic balance shared by Taeko and her second husband, Jiro, is upended when a tragedy strikes the family, in this wrenching Japanese melodrama from Kôji Fukada.

Relations are further strained by the arrival of Taeko's deaf and seemingly vulnerable ex-husband, Park, back into her life. Since Taeko is the only person who can communicate with him – Park speaks Korean sign language – the responsibility for his care falls to her. But the gap between Taeko and Jiro, both physical and emotional, grows ever wider. It's a solid, sensitively handled study of the aftermath of a trauma" - Wendy Ide, Observer. And I haven't even mention Jiro's parents involvement, or his ex-girlfriend Yamazaki...