UNLOVED

Japan, 2001, 117 minutes, colour.
Directed by Kunitoshi Manda.

Unloved is a moral fable about three people, their social interactions, their emotional interactions. The first is a young woman in her early 30s, working for the government in Tokyo. She lives by herself, in an ordinary set of apartments, is satisfied with her ordinary lot and likes it. The second person is one of her bosses, a 38-year-old divorced man who is impressed by her work and attracted by her. He invites her out. She accepts. He buys her fashionable dresses, takes her to a fashionable restaurant. However, she prefers her ordinary life and they break up. The third character is her neighbour, who works carrying boxes and goods in a moving company. He is 28, basically educated, not very wealthy. In her encounter with him, the woman finds love and satisfaction. However, just as the boss tried to shape her, she tries to shape the young man. Ultimately there is a long confrontation between all characters, a very long conversation between the young worker and the woman, and they resolve their difficulties - with some hope.

Inaugural winner of the Ecumenical Future Talent award for Critics Week, Cannes, 2001.

1. Japanese production, the city of Tokyo, apartments, ordinary and wealthy, restaurants and office blocks, supermarkets? An air of authenticity for the film and its characters? The musical score?

2. The title and its reference to each of the characters, unloved - and unlovable?

3. The young woman, her background, her work, the reprimand of her boss for not excelling? Competent work, the praise of the young man? At home and her ordinariness, feeling comfortable in her apartment? Accepting the offer to go out, the dress, the restaurant, her going to eat noodles by herself, the affair? Her wanting to break it off, not wanting him to shape her life? Her inability to move into his?

4. The young boss and his divorce, his work, competence? His meal with his mother and her advice? Attracted to the young woman, taking her out, buying her clothes, the restaurant and his business deals? The affair? His wanting her to be happy in his way? The holiday together, the facing of the truth, the young woman breaking it off? His dissatisfaction - his return, his encounter with the young man from downstairs? The young man seeking him, the brutality of his interrogation, leading him on, giving him books, promising him an interview - and then saying that he was lying and to keep the books as a souvenir?

5. The young man, his background, living downstairs, his work in the moving company, competence and incompetence? Delivering the plants? The young woman borrowing the money, returning it, his awkwardness? Offering her the club tickets? Eating together, shopping together? Their affair, her happiness? Her tendency to tell him what to do, make him neat, eat at home, doing what she wanted? His wanting some independence? The effect on each other? The encounter with the boss, the humiliation of the young man? The strong conversation and his insight into their relationship? The sun coming up, his return to her, the promise of hope?