Kabukicho Love Hotel
さよなら歌舞伎町
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
One day in a Kabukicho love hotel: a manager, his girlfriend, a Korean escort, a cop — intimacy as shift work.
Toru Takahashi tells his family and his girlfriend that he works at a first-class hotel. In fact he manages the Hotel Atlas, a love hotel in Tokyo's Kabukicho, and the film follows a single day there. Taking pizza up to a room where a pornographic video is being shot, he finds his younger sister, Miyu, among the performers; she had meant to become a nursery teacher in their home town of Shiogama until the 2011 earthquake destroyed the family factory. Afterwards he asks whether her first time was on camera too. She shakes her head, and something eases between them. His girlfriend, Saya, a singer desperate for a major-label debut, checks in with a producer, Takenaka, and after a row with Toru in the corridor, sleeps with him.
Satomi, a hotel cleaner, has spent years hiding her lover, Yasuo, in her flat; both are wanted over an assault, and the statute of limitations runs out at midnight. A married detective at the hotel with a colleague recognises her and holds her, but Satomi phones Yasuo to run without her and escapes when the fire alarm sounds. Hena, a Korean call girl who has overstayed her visa, is working her last day before going home to open a boutique. Her client blindfolds her, and in the bath she realises he is her boyfriend, Chong-su. She weeps and apologises; he confesses that he too has taken money from women for sex. They forgive each other, and decide to marry and go home together. A scout for the sex trade, Masaya, hears a runaway girl's unhappy story, leaves to quit his gang, and returns beaten to take her out for the mountain of chicken nuggets she has always wanted.
Toru finally snaps, sets off the alarm himself, pours out everything he has kept inside and rides off into the night. He hands his bicycle to Satomi, who finds Yasuo; as a screen shows midnight, they embrace. At dawn Saya finds Toru at a shrine, and he walks away without looking back; alone at home, she sings and cries. Toru boards a bus to Shiogama. Miyu is on the same bus, and neither sees the other.
Starring
Shota Sometanias Toru Takahashi
A love-hotel manager who tells his family and girlfriend that he works at a first-class hotel.
Toru Takahashi’s story
Toru's lie comes apart in a single day. Taking pizza up to a room where a pornographic video is being shot, he finds his younger sister, Miyu, among the performers; later he asks whether her first time was on camera too, and when she shakes her head, something eases between them. That night his girlfriend, Saya, checks in with a record producer, finds out where Toru really works and quarrels with him in the corridor, then sleeps with the producer. Harassed by guests, Toru snaps, sets off the fire alarm, pours out everything he has kept inside and rides off, giving his bicycle to Satomi. At dawn Saya finds him at a shrine, and he walks away without looking back. He boards a bus home to Shiogama. Miyu is on the same bus, and neither sees the other.
Atsuko Maedaas Saya Iijima
Toru's live-in girlfriend, a singer desperate for a debut with a major label.
Saya Iijima’s story
Saya believes that Toru works at a first-class hotel until the night she checks in at his love hotel with a record producer, Takenaka. Angry at the lie and at Toru for not stopping her, she quarrels with him in the corridor. She hesitates, then, as Takenaka is about to leave, sleeps with him; he goes, telling her not to push herself too hard. When the fire alarm empties the rooms, Toru tells her goodbye and runs out. At dawn she finds him at a shrine and asks him to come home, and he walks away without looking back. Alone in their flat she picks up her guitar and sings, and cannot stop crying.
Lee Eun-wooas Hena
A Korean call girl who has overstayed her visa, on her last day of work before going home.
Hena’s story
Hena has saved enough to open a boutique in Korea and means to go home within days, but her boyfriend, Chong-su, says he cannot go until he has saved for his own shop. While she slept, he searched her bag and found her call-girl card. At her final appointment, a client at the Hotel Atlas has her blindfolded, and as he washes her in the bath she realises that he is Chong-su. She weeps and apologises; he confesses that he too has taken money from women for sex. They forgive each other's lies, and on the way home he asks her to marry him. They decide to go back to Korea together.
Royas Chong-su
Hena's boyfriend, who works in a Korean restaurant, saves for a soba bar and keeps a secret of his own.
Kaho Minamias Satomi Suzuki
A hotel cleaner hiding her fugitive lover, counting the hours until the statute of limitations runs out.
Satomi Suzuki’s story
Satomi and Yasuo have been on the run for fifteen years, and at midnight the statute of limitations on the assault they are wanted for runs out. That night a married detective, at the hotel with a colleague, recognises Satomi when she brings sushi to the room and holds her there. Satomi locks herself in the toilet, phones Yasuo to run without her and breaks her phone. When the fire alarm sounds, she shakes the detective off and escapes. Out on the avenue Toru hands her his bicycle; she thanks him, rides off and finds Yasuo, and as a screen on a building shows midnight, they hold each other and rejoice.
Yutaka Matsushigeas Yasuo Ikezawa
Satomi's lover, with whom she ran away, hiding in her flat and waiting for midnight.
Why it matters
Kabukicho Love Hotel spends a day in a building made for anonymous sex and finds that nearly everyone in it is lying to someone they love: about their job, their past, or what they do for money. Ryuichi Hiroki, working from a script by Haruhiko Arai and Futoshi Nakano, treats sex work and sex traded for advantage without scorn and without gloss, as ways people get by, and he sets the story in the wake of the 2011 earthquake, which sent Miyu from a ruined family business in Shiogama into pornography in Tokyo. One critic singled out the Korean couple's scene in the bath, where each confesses what the other has been doing, as the most moving in the film. What it leaves is a gentle question about whether love can survive the truth, and an answer that changes from room to room.