UK Premiere

Short Synopsis:

A touching portrait of a relationship between Haru, a college student whose relationship with her self-centred boyfriend is going nowhere, and Riko, a bisexual medical artist who makes prosthetic body parts.

Review:

Based on the best-selling manga Love Vibes by Erika Sakurazawa and featuring a soundtrack by James Iha, former guitarist of Smashing Pumpkins, the debut feature of Momoko Andô, one of the members of this year’s festival Jury, is a delicately-nuanced portrait of two very different women. Haru, a college student, is frustrated by the lack of any real spark between her and her slobbish and indifferent boyfriend, who only seems to be interested in her for sex. One day, while brooding over a cappuccino in a cafe, she catches the eye of Riko. Riko joins her table and the two strike up a conversation in which she explains her job as a “medical artist”, something slightly different from a prosthetics, in that rather than create body parts that attempt to emulate the function of those lost through accident and disease, her role is to cure the psychological traumas arising from the patient’s physical deficiencies by balancing body and soul, creating parts that aesthetically make up for the loss. While Haru might be physically intact, Riko sees in her a certain emotional wanting to which she might provide a cure, and the two begin an all-encompassing relationship that draws Haru away from her dissatisfying routine and into a new and more emotionally fulfilling area of her life.

JS

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