It Feels So Good
火口のふたり
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Ten days before her wedding, a woman and her cousin, once lovers, lock the door for five days, until her fiancé returns — Kinema Junpo's best Japanese film of 2019.
It is the seventh summer after the 2011 earthquake. In Tokyo, Kenji Nagahara has lost almost everything: his marriage, his job, and then the company he moved to, which went bankrupt. His father rings to call him home to Akita for the wedding of Naoko Sato, his cousin, who is to marry an officer of the Self-Defense Forces in ten days. When they were young, Kenji and Naoko were lovers. She still has the album of photographs they took of themselves then, naked, in black and white. In one they lie entwined in front of a poster of a volcano's crater.
"Just for tonight, why not go back to how it was?" Naoko asks. One night is not enough. They agree on five days, until her fiancé returns from duty, and spend them eating, talking and making love. They talk about why they parted: ashamed of being cousins, they chose propriety over their bodies, and soon afterwards the earthquake struck. They talk about the partners they have had since, about marriage and children, and about the unease of living in Akita, a corner of the north-east the disaster largely spared. Naoko admits she went along with everything Kenji wanted because she loved him.
Her fiancé's return is delayed, and Naoko learns the reason his unit is keeping secret: Mount Fuji is expected to erupt, and if it does, Tokyo will stop working. With the world apparently about to end, the two stop trying to make their days mean something. They decide to stay together and simply live. Naoko, who once refused to risk a child with him, no longer refuses. The film ends on Mount Fuji erupting, cut against their last embrace.
Starring
Tasuku Emotoas Kenji Nagahara
Naoko's cousin and first lover, back in Akita after losing his marriage, his job and then the company he moved to.
Kenji Nagahara’s story
Kenji comes home to Akita for his cousin Naoko's wedding with almost nothing left. Years ago he left her for another woman, married and had a child, lost the marriage through another affair, quit his job and saw the next company go under. The one night is Naoko's idea; the next day it is Kenji who cannot stay away, and they agree on five days until her fiancé returns. They spend them eating, talking and making love, and she tells him she went along with everything he wanted because she loved him. When Naoko discovers that Mount Fuji is about to erupt, Kenji makes no plans. There is no point thinking about the future, he says; he will stay with her. Naoko, who once refused to risk a child with him, no longer refuses.
Kumi Takiuchias Naoko Sato
Kenji's cousin, ten days from marrying a Self-Defense Forces officer, who asks him to go back, for one night, to what they were.
Naoko Sato’s story
Ten days from marrying a Self-Defense Forces officer, Naoko keeps the album of naked black-and-white photographs she and Kenji took when they were young; she once followed him to Tokyo. She is marrying, she says, because she wants a child. She asks Kenji back to the way they were for one night; when he comes back for more, she allows five days, until her fiancé returns, and tells him she went along with everything he wanted because she loved him. After their last night, at the Nishimonai bon dance, she leaves before he wakes, with a note asking him to come to the wedding. Then, on her fiancé's computer, she finds why his return is delayed: Mount Fuji is about to erupt. She decides to stay with Kenji, and no longer refuses a child with him.
Akira Emotoas Kenji's father (voice)
Kenji's father in Akita, heard only as a voice on the telephone, who calls his son home for Naoko's wedding.
Why it matters
It Feels So Good is almost entirely two people in rooms, and it takes their bodies seriously: sex here is conversation, appetite and comedy as much as passion. The issues it raises are desire that outlasts propriety, a love between cousins that the law permits and conscience does not, and marriage and the wish for a child. Behind them stands the country after 2011. Haruhiko Arai set the film in Akita, a part of the north-east the disaster spared, to show how people there looked at a catastrophe that was not theirs, and said he admired the novel for imagining Mount Fuji erupting so soon after the earthquake. Kinema Junpo named it the best Japanese film of 2019 and Kumi Takiuchi its best actress. It leaves open the novel's phrase, what the body has to say: whether listening to it is a way of living honestly, or the last luxury before the end.