Love/Juice

Love/Juice is a small, 77 minute indie film. I chose to watch it because I wanted something easy. Guys, I wasn’t prepared. Love/Juice features one of the most toxic and tragic relationship dynamics I’ve seen in a film.

The film centres around two young roommates. Chinatsu is a lesbian while Kyoko is straight. When the film begins, the girls are on a solid foundation of friendship. Due to their tiny apartment, they also share a bed. After a particularly emotional night, Kyoko comforts Chinatsu by kissing her. From here, the girls’ relationship begins to go beyond standard issue friendship.

And of course, here is where the relationship breaks down. Kyoko maintains her heterosexuality throughout. She’s clear on this. But this doesn’t stop her and Chinatsu from engaging on an increasingly emotionally intimate relationship. Kyoko refuses to have sex with Chinatsu. But even here, boundaries are drawn and then immediately, the girls walk right up to that boundary and find a way to skirt around it. Eventually, an element of exclusivity is added. Both demand the other not have sex with anyone else. They’re still not having sex with each other, mind you. In almost every way, Kyoko and Chinatsu are in a romantic relationship. Except the way they’ve gone about it and their irreconcilable differences makes this relationship extraordinarily harmful.

That’s what really gets me about Love/Juice. Things shouldn’t have gotten as bad, as dramatic as they did. These are otherwise, very normal women. And their relationship starts extremely normal. Even when they go into ill-advised emotional dependency, they still communicate well. Chinatsu is always up from with her feelings for Kyoko. Kyoko is always clear that her feelings aren’t the same. But they slip deeper and deeper into this messy, harmful spiral. So, what could’ve been mere friendship becomes not quite a relationship yet still serious enough to consider suicide. This is such an incredibly well written dynamic. In 77 minutes, Love/Juice goes from the mundane to the almost insane. And never once do the steps towards the latter feel out of place.

I’m floored by how much character and relationship depth Love/Juice provides. These characters come across crystal clear. And Love/Juice does that primarily by showing how they interact with each other. Chinatsu and Kyoko certainly have lots in common. But it’s where they differ that the tension lies. And Love/Juice mines the absolute hell out of that tension. For all the ways they are, or at least should be compatible, the girls end up as such a destructive force for one another. Usually, a relationship this unhealthy warrants an opera or an Anne Rice series of novels. Telling a story of a relationship that’s this toxic but also in such a small, personal way that it’s irrelevant to any other person is so brilliant. The film doesn’t need any other characters. These two women and their fucked up dynamic anchor the entire film effortlessly.

Love/Juice has one of the most fascinating, fucked up and tragic relationship dynamics I’ve seen in a WLW film. I’m blown away that this tiny little indie pulled off such dramatic heights. If I were to make a top ten list of most unhealthy relationships, it would probably be 9 films about vampires and then Love/Juice. Without needing violence or budget or exterior forces, Love/Juice simply depicts two women destroying each other in their individual quests for affection.

Overall rating: 7.4/10

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