Love My Life

Holy crap, Love My Life is literally the cutest WLW movie I’ve ever seen.

Love My Life is about Ichiko, a lesbian who lives with her girlfriend Eri. Ichiko comes out to her father only to discover that both her parents were gay and their marriage a sham. This upsets her a little. She also has a gay best friend and they talk about what it’s like being gay and support each other. Ichiko has a flirtation with a punk rock girl which ends with them kissing. She tells Eri right away after she kisses said punk girl and they work through it in like, five minutes. Despite their generally solid relationship, Ichiko and Eri suffer a third-act breakup because Eri doesn’t want Ichiko to distract her from her law exams which she is doing to please her dickish father. Ichiko and Eri stay broken up for the next 20 minutes of the movie before their romantic reunion at the end of the film.

I like Love My Life because everyone in it is gay and generally happy. There’s very little conflict which I should be getting after this film for but I’m not overly bothered about. I just wanted all the nice, cute gays in this movie to be happy and they were. The movie is filled with vignettes of Ichiko and Eri going on dates and generally being super cute. It’s definitely filler content that in no way advances the plot but it’s filler I’m totally invested in. These are two characters who are genuinely well-suited for each other and probably will have a long, happy life together. I’d totally have just watched two hours of them being cute together.

I was also interested in the dynamic between Ichiko’s gay parents. It’s clear from the way the dad talks about their relationship that though both parents felt heterosexual pressure and couldn’t fully be themselves, they were ultimately happy with their relationship. They were friends and loved their daughter. It’s nice to see a non-dramatic, non-traditional family model onscreen.

The movie ends with reunion sex between Ichiko and Eri. That’s my least favourite part of the movie. It felt a little like it came out of nowhere because it was strictly PG up until this point. Personally, I wanted the movie to remain that way. 95% of this movie is a movie that would be appropriate for 10 year olds to watch but then it ends with a fairly explicit sex scene making this film not suitable for children. I think that’s a shame. As otherwise, this would be a great WLW movie to show to younger girls who need models of happy, lesbian relationships. And in regards to the sex scene itself,  there’s a hint of male gaze and a few positions that are not ideal for two women.

I do like that during said sex scene, Eri and Ichiko smile and laugh with each other. They act as though they are women who know each other’s bodies and what they want. I like seeing that. The actresses do very well with portraying the intimacy that comes from being in a long-term relationship with someone. Like their relationship and the movie overall, it’s sweet and cute if not wholly unnecessary. 

Love My Life is objectively average. The filmmaking is fine, the screenwriting is fine but the overall product is better than fine because it was just so damn cute. I get that conflict is more or less necessary to make a good movie. But it was also nice to take a break from lesbian conflict and just see a bunch of super cute gays have healthy relationships. It’s nice to see such an unabashedly fluffy lesbian movie. I definitely recommend this for anyone who’s totally over all the fictional gay angst and just wants something happy and cute.

Overall rating: 7.9/10

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