Passion

In his first theatrical debut feature, Hamaguchi examines a series of intersecting love triangles as only he can, plunging headlong into the exposed-nerve confessions and unrequited attachments among a group of thirtysomethings. The film begins when a couple, Kaho (Aoba Kawai) and Tomoya (Ryuta Okamoto), announce their engagement to their friends over dinner, where it’s also revealed the groom had an affair years earlier. While the two spend the evening apart, Tomoya follows his friends to the apartment of a former classmate (Fusako Urabe, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy) with whom he’s in love and is led into ever more vulnerable and shocking exchanges of emotional honesty. Passion was made as Hamaguchi’s student thesis project at Tokyo University of the Arts, and it already displayed, with clear-headed precision, the director’s peerless gift for elucidating the complexity of modern relationships and their intricate, frequently inexpressible wounds. A Film Movement release.