Japan: A Story of Love and Hate (2008)

Japan: A Story of Love and Hate: Directed by Sean McAllister. With Naoki Sato, Yoshie Sato, Sean McAllister. Naoki once had it all – the fast car, the executive home. Boss of his own business he lived the good-life when Japan’s economy was at it’s height. Then the bubble burst – and he met Yoshie.

“u0026#39;Japan: A Story of Love and Hateu0026#39; is a documentary about a failed businessman living with/off his much younger girlfriend on the poverty line in Japan. The story is a mixture of universal tragedy (no time, no space, no freedom and increasingly no love) with a mixture of peculiarly Japanese characteristics and other characteristics that are just downright peculiar (when the hapless hero bonds with his girlfriendu0026#39;s father over their common need of Viagra, in the presence of the whole family, one senses one is witnessing a scene that would be odd in any culture). The film is slightly marred, however, by the film-makeru0026#39;s insistence on repeatedly telling us how odd Japan is, when he could be letting the story tell itself. But itu0026#39;s still an intriguing, and intrinsically very sad, look at what happens when you fall through the cracks in one of the worldu0026#39;s richest nations.”