Ride or Die
彼女
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A woman kills her old classmate's abusive husband and the two go on the run — desire, debt and rescue tangled together.
Rei Nagasawa grew up rich, works as a cosmetic surgeon and has a girlfriend, Mika, but has never been able to tell her family she is a lesbian. On the night of Mika's birthday a call comes from Nanae Shinoda, the classmate Rei loved in high school and has not seen for ten years. In a hotel room Nanae undresses, and her body is covered in bruises: her husband beats her, as her father did before him. Either he dies or she does, she says. Rei answers at once that it should be him, and Nanae asks her to kill him. The next night Rei finds the husband in a bar, buys him a drink, goes home with him and stabs him to death.
Nanae is repelled and frightened by what Rei has done for her, and goes after her in a car anyway. The film follows their flight: a visit to Nanae's father, in hospital in a persistent vegetative state, where she leaves her engagement ring by his bed; the house where she grew up poor, and the memory of how Rei, rich even then, lent her three million yen so that she could stay at school; a scramble away from a police officer; a stranger's lift to a station; Rei's last call to Mika, who says only goodbye. Nanae swings between cruelty and need. Rei takes whatever she is given.
They hide at the Nagasawa family's villa in the woods until Rei's brother, Masato, and his wife, Yu, arrive, having seen the news, and urge them to give themselves up. Nanae says she let Rei into the car only out of pity. Then Rei learns that for ten years Nanae has kept the receipt from the lunch at which they split the bill and parted, and the 550 yen that went with it. She understands, and the two run again, in her brother's car. They spend their last hours in a hut by the sea and make love. Then Rei calls the police from a public phone. As the officers take them, Nanae calls out that she will wait for her, and Rei smiles. The smile dissolves into the portraits they drew of each other in an art class at school.
Starring
Kiko Mizuharaas Rei Nagasawa
A wealthy cosmetic surgeon who has never told her family she is a lesbian, and kills for the woman she loved at school.
Rei Nagasawa’s story
At school Rei secretly loved Nanae, and when Nanae, too poor to pay her way, was caught stealing running shoes and faced expulsion, Rei lent her three million yen to stay. Ten years after they last met, Nanae calls on the night of Mika's birthday. Rei sees the bruises, says at once that the husband should die, and the next night stabs him. On the run she takes whatever Nanae gives her. At the family villa her brother reminds her she has a home to return to, and she resolves to give herself up, until she finds the 550 yen Nanae has kept for ten years. She flees again with Nanae, spends a last night with her by the sea, then calls the police herself. As they take her, Nanae calls out that she will wait, and Rei smiles.
Honami Satoas Nanae Shinoda
Rei's high-school classmate, beaten first by her father and then by her husband, who asks Rei to kill him.
Nanae Shinoda’s story
Nanae grew up poor; when she was caught stealing running shoes at school and faced expulsion, Rei paid for her to stay. Ten years ago, newly married, she repaid Rei over lunch and said they would not meet again. Now she shows Rei her bruises and asks her to kill her husband. When Rei does, Nanae is repelled and afraid, and drives off with her anyway. She leaves her engagement ring at her father's hospital bedside, and turns on Rei, then clings to her. At the villa, when Rei decides to give herself up, Nanae rages, then says she took her along only out of pity. Yet she has kept the 550 yen from that last lunch. In a hut by the sea they make love. As the police hold them, she calls out to Rei that she will wait.
Yoko Makias Mika Oe
Rei's girlfriend, left behind on her birthday when Rei answers Nanae's call.
Shunsuke Tanakaas Masato Nagasawa
Rei's brother, who comes to the family villa and urges the two women to give themselves up.
Anne Suzukias Yu Nagasawa
Rei's sister-in-law, who stands in the way when the two women try to flee again.
Shinya Niiroas Kotaro Shinoda
Nanae's husband, who beats her and whom Rei kills.
Why it matters
Ride or Die is a love story built on a murder, and it will not let either become simple. Rei kills a man because the woman she has loved since school asks her to, and the film keeps two questions open to the end: whether rescue can be love when the one rescued is also using her rescuer, and whether gratitude, guilt and desire can be told apart when one woman owes the other everything. Beneath them is what drives the whole plot, domestic violence, which Nanae suffered first from her father and then from her husband with no way out that anyone offered her. Ryuichi Hiroki directed it from Ching Nakamura's manga Gunjo, and it was Netflix's first Japanese film of 2021. What it leaves is an image of two women who can be free of the world only together, and only for a few days.