Love Life (2022 film)

The film follows a married woman, Taeko, who lives happily with her husband, Jiro. She decides to care for long-lost Park, father of her son Keita, when Park reappears deaf, ill, and homeless.^[7]

• Fumino Kimura as Taeko Osawa^[12]
• Kento Nagayama as Jiro Osawa^[7]
• Atom Sunada as Park Shinji, Taeko's ex-husband and Keita's father
• Hirona Yamazaki as Risa Yamazaki, Jiro's ex-girlfriend^[13]
• Misuzu Kanno as Akie Osawa, Jiro's mother^[2]
• Tomorowo Taguchi as Makoto Osawa, Jiro's father
• Tetta Shimada as Keita Shinji, Park and Taeko's son^[2]
• Mito Natsume as Yoko Kondo, a staff member who works in the same place as Taeko^[14]

The film had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on 5 September 2022,^[9] and competed for Golden Lion in 'In competition' section.^[15] It was released in Japan on 9 September 2022,^[14] and held its North American premiere at 2022 Toronto International Film Festival in 'Contemporary World Cinema' section on 12 September 2022 at Scotiabank Theatre, Toronto.^[16] MK2 Films have taken the distribution rights of the film for Europe in February 2022.^[8] It also made it to 'A Window on Asian Cinema' section of 27th Busan International Film Festival and was screened on October 6, 2022.^[17]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 6.50/10.^[18]

Guy Lodge of Variety wrote: "While it's impossible not to be affected at some level by its characters' hellish plight, the predominant softness of tone here tends toward the wispy."^[19] David Ehrlich of IndieWire graded the film with B+ and wrote, "An enormously poignant melodrama told at the volume of a broken whisper, Kōji Fukada’s Love Life represents a major breakthrough for a filmmaker who's found the perfect story for his probing but distant style."^[20]