La Maison de Himiko (Japanese) [House Of Himiko]

This was an interesting film, unlike most other Japanese gay themed films that I have seen before. It was an interesting mix of drama, comedy, emotions. In fact, the film could also be a right balance between both gay and straight audience. A story that’s said to  focus on relationships (does it really?), it makes for something interesting on paper.

Saori is a young woman, with low self-esteem and always low on cash struggling for survival. Her father left her mother to live his life as a gay man. He started a bar for gays, which later closed. He then opened up a retirement home for gay men called “La Maison de Himiko”. Understandably, she holds the grudge against him through the entire movie. When approached by her father’s very young and handsome lover to work as an assistant at this home, she unwillingly takes up the job became of money involved. At first she’s very uneasy and finds the men that live in the retirement home disgusting. Slowly but surely she comes to like the men that are there and helps them through some problems as well as confront problems of her own. The film focuses a little bit of every individual older man in that house along with the patron and how their lives were and are now and maybe everything is not as rosy for these men as it seems to Saori. While she opens up to everyone in the home, she still can’t forgive her father, who ultimately dies. She joins her old job back but clearly misses the beautiful company and love she received at the home. Things change and with persuasion from the members of then house, she comes back to the home for a hopefully happy future.

Interesting storyline and executed a s a chick-flick with little bot of romance, sex, drama, comedy and everything. I enjoyed the film because I chose to ignore the loopholes but there were quite a few. Why is the young sexy guy with older man when she stops around for sex at every opportunity, why does he suddenly become sexually interested in Saori, how does the house make money to live such a good eventful life etc. The film does show that homosexuality for some folks is quite open while for others, it could be still a shame. The young boy who gets transformed from being a bully to the house to a actually helping them in cooking was a good side plot. In terms of acting, the guy playing the older father is superb. He has that carizma of a lady queen who you can imagine running a gay club where the richest and the famous came in old days. He had that positive suave attitude that you would expect from such a person. His younger lover was way too cute and also acted well. I sometimes felt that Saori was over the top. The plot twist of one the guys going paralysed etc was totally unnecessary in my opinion.

Al said and that, even though the film might not have been great, it wasn’t bad either. I didn’t feel cheated or angry at having wasted my time. Yes, the film had gay stereotypes but I am not complaining. (5.5/10)