Kakera
2009 / 107m - Japan
Drama
3.0*/5.0*
A Piece of Our Life poster

Watches

June 28, 2020

3.0*/5.0*

A decent drama, though I expected a bit more from this one. I liked Ando's 0.5 mm and I'd heard good things about A Piece of Our Life, but it felt rather sterile and a little too by the numbers. As if I'd already seen this film a million times before, only with different actors and from a different director.

It is quite novel within the Japanese canon I guess, there aren't that many gay dramas, certainly not high-profile ones. The start of the film is pretty good too, but then it starts to falter a little. The romance never dazzles and the drama felt a bit overdone, especially the boorish boyfriend didn't add much.

Performances are nice though and the cinematography is pretty decent too. Nothing out of the ordinary, but some well-framed shots and nice camerawork. Add a decent score and you have a solid, though somewhat unremarkable drama. It's not a terrible introduction to Ando's work, I'd just hoped it'd be something more than that.