Egoist
エゴイスト
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A fashion editor supports a young trainer and his mother; the film asks whether paying for love is still love.
Kosuke Saito is a fashion-magazine editor in Tokyo, openly gay among friends. He left home at eighteen; his mother died when he was fourteen, and he has never quite come out to his father. Friends introduce him to a young personal trainer, Ryuta Nakamura. The sessions turn into an affair, and Kosuke falls hard. Ryuta was raised by a single mother, Taeko, who is often ill, and he works to support her. Kosuke starts sending gifts home for her.
Then Ryuta says it has to end. He sells sex to pay for his mother's care, and since meeting Kosuke he can no longer treat it as just work. He stops answering the phone. Kosuke books him as a client at a hotel and makes an offer: he will pay Ryuta every month himself, and they will manage together. Ryuta accepts, and takes on jobs from morning to night to make up the rest. Invited to dinner by Taeko, Kosuke finds a warmth at her table he has not known since boyhood. When Taeko needs an operation, Kosuke buys a car to ease the hospital trips. On the day it is delivered he waits in it for Ryuta, who had suggested they drive to the sea. Taeko answers his call. Ryuta died that morning, in his sleep.
At the funeral Kosuke breaks down and apologises to her. Taeko tells him she knew what he was to her son, and that Ryuta said Kosuke had shown him the world was not only hell. At home, Kosuke's father tells him how, when his mother fell ill and asked for a divorce, he refused to leave her. Kosuke asks Taeko to keep taking the money he gave Ryuta. She is shocked, and he insists. She welcomes him to dinner, and sometimes to stay in Ryuta's room. Then one day she is gone: in hospital for a week with pancreatic cancer, she had not wanted to worry him. He tells her he does not know what love is; she answers that it is enough that they know. When another patient asks whether he is her son, Taeko says yes, her pride. In the last scene she holds out her hand and asks him not to go home yet, and he takes it.
Starring
Ryohei Suzukias Kosuke Saito
A gay fashion-magazine editor in Tokyo who lost his mother at fourteen and pours his money and care into Ryuta and his mother.
Kosuke Saito’s story
Kosuke goes home to his father once a year, on his mother's death anniversary, and has never quite come out to him. He falls for Ryuta and sends gifts home for Ryuta's mother. When Ryuta ends it, confessing that he sells sex to pay for her care, Kosuke books him at a hotel and offers to pay him every month: they will manage together. At Taeko's table he finds a warmth he lost as a boy. He buys a car for the hospital trips and waits in it on the day Ryuta wanted them to drive to the sea; Ryuta has died in his sleep. Kosuke insists on paying Taeko the money instead, and tells her he does not know what love is. In hospital she asks him not to go home yet, and he takes her hand.
Hio Miyazawaas Ryuta Nakamura
A young personal trainer who sells sex to pay for his sick mother's care, until Kosuke offers to support him.
Ryuta Nakamura’s story
Ryuta works as a personal trainer and supports his mother, Taeko. Training Kosuke turns into a love affair, and he carries Kosuke's gifts home to her. Then he says it must end: he has been selling sex to pay for her care, and since meeting Kosuke he can no longer treat it as work. When Kosuke books him at a hotel and offers to pay him every month, he breaks down, then accepts. He gives up the sex work and takes jobs from morning to night, glad he no longer has to hide from his mother what he does. He suggests they drive to the sea when Kosuke's new car arrives. That morning he dies in his sleep. At the funeral Taeko tells Kosuke that Ryuta said he had been saved: the world was not only hell.
Sawako Agawaas Taeko Nakamura
Ryuta's mother, who raised him alone, knows exactly what Kosuke was to her son, and takes him in after Ryuta dies.
Taeko Nakamura’s story
Taeko lives on what her son earns. To thank Kosuke for his gifts she cooks him dinner, and that evening asks Ryuta whether Kosuke is someone precious to him; man or woman, she is glad. After her operation Ryuta dies in his sleep, and it is she who answers Kosuke's call. At the funeral she tells Kosuke that Ryuta said he had been saved. When Kosuke asks her to keep taking the money he gave Ryuta, she is shocked, and he insists; she welcomes him to dinner and sometimes to stay in Ryuta's room. She hides her own illness until he finds her in hospital with pancreatic cancer. She thanks him for loving them, tells another patient he is her son, her pride, and, holding out her hand, asks him not to go home yet.
Akira Emotoas Yoshio Saito
Kosuke's widowed father in his home town, who asks if there is anyone special in his son's life, and once refused to leave his dying wife.
Why it matters
Egoist asks whether love that pays is still love. Kosuke has money; Ryuta has a sick mother and a body he has been selling to keep her. The film does not look away from that imbalance, and Kosuke himself keeps asking whether his generosity is devotion or a way of buying a family he lost. Around the question it shows how little room there is for them: at Ryuta's funeral Kosuke is one mourner among others. The film is adapted from the autobiographical novel by the columnist Makoto Takayama, first published under a pen name and reissued under his own name after his death. Its answer comes from the one person entitled to give it. Taeko, who knew all along, tells him that if he cannot tell what love is, it is enough that they know.