Japan has been upfront with a number of teen-targeted gay themed films, and a number of them were easy-favourites. Hatsu Koi is another gay themed film that deals with gay teenagers in love.

Tadashi is in love with Kota. However, Kota is afraid that being labeled as a gay may cause him trouble. So, Kota keepts his distance away from Tadashi, which is hurting Tadashi.

Maybe I am shallow, but I don't really see the reason to be obsessed with Kota. There is hardly any chemistry here. Unlike otherr gay themed films from Japan, where the actors are usually cute, this film fails to pick a good one to make Kota stands out.

1 Comment:

  1. Suffern AC said...
    It’s actually a good thing that Imaizumi did not cast the regular beautiful youths in the movie, but the movie was poorly marketed. The trailer and marketing for this movie was that it was a variant of the boys love movies that were starting to come out of Japan at the time (Starring whomever from “Prince of Tennis” fame) that are marketed to girls and young women. The marketing stressed the romance, which is what you were expecting. This is actually a gay coming out film involving a high-schooler being introduced into wider gay social networks and social issues like gay marriage. The “first love” aspect is only one part of the story. Hatsu Koi is closer to “Right by Me” or “I am not what you want” or or “Like Grains of Sand” than it is to Anitque, Boys Love, or Kindan no Koi. The main character is gay and deals with that, as opposed to the "Boys Love" movies where the at least one of the main characters deals with the "problems" caused by being too beautiful and too desireable to other men.

    The consequences of being too beautiful and having too much sexual charisma are many and tragic and lead to great deals of drama in those Boys Love movies, but the ”romantic” endings are rarely very satisfying from a gay point of view. "I love you, now you’re dead so I’ll kill myself, too!" or "Now that you have been paralyzed and can't have sex any longer, I can finally admit I love you" are actually more troubling than "romantic."

    I’m sure you had the bishonen sickness, too, when you were in high school, ruining the lives of your many suitors as well as your own with your sexual powers. More likely though, your first crush didn’t go anywhere because it turned out he was straight or wasn’t interested (if you bothered to awkwardly ask him out at all) and you spent time wishing you had other gay people around to hang out with.

Post a Comment



Newer Post Older Post Home

Related Posts with Thumbnails