「それては 私が私たちが抱えてる 欲望はあっていいもんだと思いたい。」
“I’d like to think it’s okay to have the desires we have.”

Hiroki Terai (Goro Inagaki) is a prosecutor at the Yokohama Prosecutor’s Office. He is married and has an elementary-school-age son. His son often skips school, and Hiroki Terai fears that his son is cutting himself off from the outside world. Meanwhile, Natsuki Kiryu (Yui Aragaki) is a contract worker in a Hiroshima shopping mall. She has a particular habit and keeps it a secret. Her secret is that she wants to disconnect from the outside world. Due to someone’s accidental death, Hiroki Terai and Natsuki Kiryu connect with each other.

With (Ab)normal desire (正欲), Yoshiyuki Kishi offers a multi-layered drama, based on Ryo Asai’s award-winning novel, that challenges societal taboos in the story of the intertwined fates of five people with atypical sexual tendencies and a desire to live on the fringe of society.

Taboo and loneliness

In this movie, Takehiko Minato and Yoshiyuki Kishi play on two fronts: a major taboo and the loneliness it brings. It must be admitted from the outset that the taboo present in this film is certainly not widespread. It’s a world apart from the little taboos that most people practice. But the idea remains the same: when you feel abnormal, you want to isolate yourself. 

For me, it’s in this treatment of solitude that (Ab)normal desire takes its strength. This theme also represents a major reality in Japan today, namely loneliness. More and more studies are pointing to the growing number of Japanese who isolate themselves, for a variety of reasons. This growing solitude within the population is a taboo in itself, with the government trying to show that it’s not too much of a problem. Because image is important…

So, in this feature film, we meet a large number of depressed, lonely and sad-looking characters. Whether we’re talking about the 8-9 year-old child who no longer wants to go to school, the father who no longer seems to have a place in his family, the young woman who suffers from anthropophobia, the apathetic young man who doesn’t like other people, or the young woman with particularly unusual sexual desires, they’re all, in different ways, lonely.

Too many characters

What weakens the story is the sheer number of characters. It’s confusing, especially as many of them look the same and are barely visible at the start of the movie. As a result, for long stretches of the film, you’re left wondering who is who on the screen. 

Among them is Hiroki, a tough detective from Yokohoma who fears that his 10-year-old son is becoming a hikikomori, preferring YouTube fame to normal human interaction. Meanwhile, in Hiroshima, Natsuki, a salesgirl, finds herself rebelling against the imposed norm that you must marry and have children before you’re too old. Her only pleasure is sitting alone in her room watching videos about a certain obsession.

Added to these three characters are Sasaki (Hayato Isomura), a young worker who shares the same obsession as Natsuki; Daiya Morohashi (Kanta Sato), the apathetic young man who is himself the subject of Yaeko’s (Ayaka Higashino) obsession. 

But don’t let the English title sway you, as these characters have more at stake than just their sexual deviance. Natsuki, for example, goes as far as to follow the man she’s secretly in love with and throws a large stone through his window when “her” man is with another woman. 

Each story is interesting in its own right, but there are too many of them, and so they are not sufficiently developed.

A little more…

Sympathetic, nuanced and beautifully interpreted, (Ab)normal Desire challenges the viewer while dealing with sexuality without resorting to arousal, and is certainly one of the most surprising Japanese films of the year.

With a few less characters and a little more development, we’d have one of the best Japanese films of the year. The way in which the director shows the issues and dangers linked to the Youtuber culture, whether we’re talking about the loneliness it engenders or the narcissistic perversity and bad influence on young people. 

So, without being a perfect movie, it’s still worth seeing.

(Ab)normal desire is presented at the TJFF on June 17, 2024.

Trailer