In his first commercial feature, after a student adaptation of Stanisław Lem's 1961 novel Solaris (first famously adapted by Andre Tarkovsky in 1972), Oscar-winning Drive My Car filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi traces the romantic entanglements of a close-knit circle of friends in Tokyo.
After Kenichiro (Nao Okabe) helps on-and-off girlfriend Takako (Fusako Urabe) to bury her 26-year-old cat, he leaves to gather with friends for a celebration at a restaurant. Kaho (Aoba Kawai), a middle school teacher, uses the occasion of her 29th birthday to announce her engagement to lecturer Tomoya (Ryuta Okamoto), but because she and Kenichiro used to be an item, the response isn't quite as enthusiastic as she hoped. If anything, everyone seems uncomfortable.
Afterward, the women head home, and the men, including married father-to-be Takeshi (Kiyohiko Shibukawa), head to the house Takako rents from her aunt, a romance novelist. As they drink and talk, it becomes clear that Takeshi, a meat-packing plant manager, is obsessed with money and status, and that Tomoya, who has a history with Takako, still carries a torch. Takeshi also finds himself attracted to the aunt. Later in the film, both men will return to the house, leading to a knockdown, drag-out fight.
Hamaguchi then catches up with Kaho encouraging her students to embrace pacifism after the suicide of a bullied boy, except they have trouble grasping the concept. It's an odd detour in a film otherwise concerned with affairs of the heart, though it does spur a discussion between Kaho and Tomoya about their future. As much as she loves him, her mother disapproves, explaining that she finds him shallow, which doesn't seem fair, though he's pretty noncommittal about commitment.
The friends continue to pine for what they don't have, leading to arguments and hurt feelings, not least because Kenichiro and Takeshi can be aggressive and combative, while the others can be passive in comparison. Hamaguchi would reunite with Urabe and Kawai for 2022's Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, while Okamoto, only 34 at the time, would retire after appearing in Passion. Not counting a bit part, it was only his second feature film. With his looks and talent, he seems to have had a bright future ahead of him, so it's surprising to find that he quit while he was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Passion is always engaging and the entire cast delivers, especially the touchingly vulnerable Kawai, but it isn't as focused or as emotionally involving as Hamaguchi's subsequent films, like 2015's Happy Hour, a five-hour feature about three female friends grappling with the mysterious disappearance of a fourth, or 2018's Asako I and II, an uncanny literary adaptation about a woman who falls in love, at different times, with two unrelated men (played by the same actor) who look exactly like.
For all its imperfections, though, the film is remarkably self-assured for a thesis project. Over the next decade, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi would make great strides, but Passion proves he was a gifted filmmaker right from the start.
Where does this title belong on library shelves?
Passion belongs on Japanese, foreign film, and drama shelves in academic and public libraries.
What kind of film series could use this title?
Series on Japanese film in the 21st century or the work of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi could make excellent use of Passion.
What type of instructors will use this title?
Film studies and Japanese film instructors will find Passion fitting for a classroom setting and enlightening in its look at the early career of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, in addition to its multi-character study of the Generation X cohort in contemporary Japan.