Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2010

It’s not often that a new filmmaker comes along with a pedigree like Momoko Ando’s. Her father is the legendary actor/director Eiji Okuda, her mother the essayist Kazu Ando, and her sister the rising-star actress Sakura Ando. Momoko studied film production at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, and her debut work is a keenly observed youth romance/coming-of-age story. Based on the bestselling manga Love Vibes by Erika Sakurazawa, Kakera tells the story of bumbling college student Haru (Hikari Mitsushima) and her romance with the self-assured but occasionally caustic prosthetics maker Riko (Eriko Nakamura). Haru enters the lesbian liaison tentatively but is soon as infatuated as Riko, who wants to scream their love to the world. It’s a rare work that can realistically portray, as well as capture the delicacy of, romantic relationships, and Kakera pulls it off while lacing the whole affair with deadpan humor. The symbolism is sometimes heavy-handed (images of war on the TV when Haru gets sexually assaulted; Haru losing a ring Riko gave her as things go bad, etc.), but who’s to quibble when the overall affect is so tender? (English title: A Piece of our Life; 107 min)