A Piece of Our Life

A Piece of Our Life is a weird movie. Usually, weird is one of the highest compliments I can give a movie. Sadly, some of the weirdness in A Piece of Our Life comes from its attitude towards sexual violence. That’s not something I’m a fan of.

The film focuses on an awkward young woman named Haru. She starts the film with a boyfriend named Ryota who she’s not too excited about. Early on, she meets the effervescent Riko at a cafe. Haru soon decides she’d rather date Riko and tries to break up with Ryota. He ignores her attempts and assaults her. When Riko learns she hasn’t broken up with him, she causes a major fight. However, she later returns and apologizes and they remain together. Riko also finally makes Ryota go away but not before he assaults Haru once more. Even without Ryota, things don’t change much for Haru and Riko. Haru is nervous to come out and be so demonstrative with their relationship. Riko becomes increasingly emotionally manipulative and no longer a person that Haru feels safe and happy to be around.

A Piece of Our Life is tonally really strange. What’s set up in the first act is a much lighter movie than what follows. In my notes about the film, I wrote that I sort of wish I could stop the movie after Haru and Riko’s first date because it was so cute and I didn’t want to see conflict intrude. In hindsight, I still wish I’d done that. From the first act, I expected this to be a small, quirky romantic drama where the conflict is probably Haru being awkward and not wanting to come out as dating a woman. Instead, the film is a portrait of a woman who falls from one abusive relationship to the next all while the film at least partially maintains the light atmosphere established in the first act.

Near the end of the film, when Riko has gone from bad to worse, she has some dialogue that makes me think she’s a sociopath. Not as an exaggeration but that the director may have intentionally written her character to have the traits of sociopathy. In hindsight, that’s sort of cool. I almost want to watch the film again and see if her actions early in the film when I thought this was a romance still fit with this armchair diagnosis. I think they do. In the first half, Riko is desirable because she’s uncaring of what society wants, is very blunt and impulsive in a way that leads to fun adventures. As Haru settles down with her, it’s also shown she’s possessive, manipulative and cold. This is actually a cool depiction of a relationship with someone with a personality disorder I wish I’d been keyed into from the start.

I’d be giving this film a much different review were it not for the sexual assaults. Without these scenes, I probably would have given the film a positive review. And it’s not just that I don’t like seeing depictions of rape in film (though I don’t). But A Piece of Our Life isn’t prepared to give the topic the weight it deserves. It seems clear to me that the director doesn’t understand the seriousness of sexual assault. The scenes really don’t vibe with the tone of the film and there’s not enough aftermath to show that the director understands that sexual assault has ongoing consequences. The film treats these assaults as a symptom of a larger cause. But it makes every single conflict in the film look unimportant in comparison to the one the film itself doesn’t seem to think it’s worth focusing on.

A Piece of Our Life has something to it. There are moments of weirdness and absurdity I really liked. There’s also moments of awkwardness and connection that do really ring true. Also, the sound mixing is really good. Dialogue comes through crystal clear and music is always the exact right volume so that’s a win. Despite what I initially thought, the film is not a romance. It is about Haru escaping controlling people and abusive relationships. That’s not the problem either, though it did make the film darker than I expected. What really brings A Piece of Our Life down is the two scenes of sexual assault and how the film didn’t treat this with the seriousness that topic requires. These two scenes really did sour the movie for me. It would be a far better film without them.

Overall rating: 5.6/10

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