Another Hole in the Head Film Festival Coverage
Love Will Tear Us Apart review.
Ken’ichi Ugana plays it more straight in Love Will Tear Us Apart. Which only makes his wild moments all the more effective.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Directed by Ken’ichi Ugana
Written by Ken’ichi Ugana and Hirobumi Watanabe
Starring Sayu Kubota, Yuzu Aoki, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Atsuko Maeda, Akaji Maro, Riko, Hitomi Takahashi and Shunsuke Tanaka
Love Will Tear Us Apart Review
Ken’ichi Ugana’s Visitors was a crazy time that landed itself in our top ten movies of 2023. His follow up effort, Love Will Tear Us Apart doesn’t have a lot in common with Visitors. Well…except for being a great movie. Instead of presenting three wild segments mostly connected by their existence in an insane world, Love Will Tear Us Apart gives us a more traditional narrative experience. There are still plenty of crazy moments here…perhaps made more effective by the grounded world that contains them.
One trick that Ugana does hold over from Visitors is time jumps. Both movies leap forward in time for the benefit of a sprawling story. In Visitors the jumps are one of the most intriguing aspects of the story. What we don’t see becomes fascinating when we find ourselves dropped into a world that has changed in the meantime. Love Will Tear Us Apart jumps the story for the opposite reason. What happens in between doesn’t matter. It isn’t the interesting part of the story.
Wakaba (Sayu Kubota) has a unique problem. People around her keep getting murdered. A childhood incident seems to be the catalyst…but the obvious suspect died years earlier. No one will be safe until she can identify the masked killer…and put an end to his rampage.
The childhood incident in Love Will Tear Us Apart is a simple act of kindness. Wakaba witnesses a boy being picked on in class and tries to stand up for him. It results in being the target of bullying herself…and in a deadly retaliation. The bullies are pushed out of high window. Wakaba looks up to see the boy she befriended looking down at her.
Seven years later, Wakaba and her friend Kanna (Riko) are on a bus with a band she loves. Kanna feels uncomfortable…but Wakaba wants to party with them. Despite several warning signs…they decide to spend the night at their vacation home. That’s when the murders begin. Wakaba and Kanna manage to escape…but not before getting a good look at the masked killer and his handiwork. Wakaba is sure it is the same boy from her childhood…but he killed himself years earlier.
While in the hospital, Wakaba is visited by a police officer named Kamiyama (Mitsuru Fukikoshi). He is breaking protocol by questioning her since his daughter is among the victims at the vacation home. He will stop at nothing to find the man responsible. Wakaba manages to walk out of the hospital unscathed. Kanna is not as lucky.
A year in the future we see history repeat itself again. The masked man appears and targets a new acquaintance of Wakaba. Another two-year jump finds Wakaba ready to face the masked man head on. She doesn’t have to wait long to get her wish.
I’ve left out a lot of things in Love Will Tear Us Apart. Things that make elevate it from an interesting movie to a great one. Fun kills, crazy twists, and a completely bonkers climax…for starters. So many of the highlights in Love Will Tear Us Apart come out of nowhere that it would be a crime to talk about them here. For a movie with the straightforward concept loosely outlined above…it stores a ton of secrets and surprises. This is Ugana at his best. The jaw dropping moments of Visitors play even better contained inside a story you can easily follow.
Grounding his narrative does nothing to dull Ugana’s wild imagination. His impulses are always fun. Whatever he comes up with next…it’s going to be fun. Wild imagery, shocking twists, a stunning resolution. Now that I think about it…maybe Love Will Tear Us Apart isn’t that unlike Visitors after all. Consider whatever he does next a must watch. Just like Love Will Tear Us Apart. And Visitors.
Scare Value
Anyone expecting something similar to Ugana’s wild Visitors may feel disappointed to learn that Love Will Tear Us Apart is fairly grounded. … Perhaps I should say “comparatively” grounded. It’s still crazier than your average movie. The tonal shift allows the wild moments to shine even brighter. A fun movie full of unexpected moments. Ugana has emerged as a must watch filmmaker.
