Moteki
モテキ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A 31-year-old's sudden 'popular period' with four women — a musical about male romantic self-pity.
A year after the popular period of the television series, when women came into his life all at once and then left, Yukiyo Fujimoto is thirty-one, back in Tokyo and newly hired as a staff writer at Natalie, a pop-culture news site run by Sumida. For the first time his work means something to him. On Twitter he gets talking to Miyuki Matsuo, a magazine editor, and when they meet they hit it off at once. They go on dates, but she lives with a boyfriend, and Yukiyo, as usual, cannot bring himself to act. His feelings, meanwhile, keep turning into pop songs; at one point he dances with the group Perfume.
Miyuki's friend Rumiko Masumoto, an office worker two years older than him, tells him she loves him, and they spend the night together. He tries to love her back. But seeing Miyuki again he knows he cannot, and he breaks it off; Rumiko clings to him, and he leaves her. Two other women are part of this second popular period, his senior colleague Motoko and Ai, who works at a girls' bar, though the film spends little time on either.
Sent to interview an events producer, Daisuke Yamashita, Yukiyo discovers that he is Miyuki's boyfriend, and that he is married. Miyuki has been his mistress all along. Furious and humiliated, Yukiyo goes to her that night and tells her how he feels, and she turns him down. On the day of Daisuke's music festival, Daisuke tells Miyuki he will get a divorce, but the news leaves her cold. Then she spots Yukiyo, there to report, and runs. He runs after her across the festival grounds, and when at last he catches her, they end up in the mud, kissing.
Starring
Mirai Moriyamaas Yukiyo Fujimoto
A thirty-one-year-old writer at a pop-culture news site, timid in love, whose feelings keep breaking into song.
Yukiyo Fujimoto’s story
Newly hired at Natalie, Yukiyo finds meaning in his work for the first time. He meets Miyuki through Twitter and they hit it off, but she lives with a boyfriend, and he cannot bring himself to act. When her friend Rumiko declares her love, he spends the night with her and tries to love her back; seeing Miyuki again, he knows he cannot, and he breaks it off, leaving Rumiko clinging to him. Sent to interview the events producer Daisuke, he learns that Daisuke is Miyuki's boyfriend, and married. Furious and humiliated, he goes to Miyuki that night and tells her how he feels; she turns him down. At Daisuke's festival he spots her and she runs. He chases her, and when he catches her they fall in the mud; he kisses her, and she ends up smiling.
Masami Nagasawaas Miyuki Matsuo
A magazine editor Yukiyo meets on Twitter, open and charming, who is secretly seeing a married man.
Miyuki Matsuo’s story
The night Miyuki first meets Yukiyo, they drink, sing karaoke and kiss, although she tells him she lives with a boyfriend. She stays over at his flat, joins a party with his colleagues and brings along her friend Rumiko. Her boyfriend is Daisuke, an events producer, and he is married; she has been his mistress all along. When Yukiyo learns it and comes to her that night to tell her how he feels, she turns him down, telling him he is not someone she can grow with. On the day of Daisuke's music festival Daisuke tells her he will get a divorce, and the news leaves her cold. Then she sees Yukiyo, there to report, and runs. He chases her across the grounds and catches her, and in the mud he kisses her; she ends up smiling.
Kumiko Asoas Rumiko Masumoto
Miyuki's friend, an office worker two years older than Yukiyo, who declares her love and cannot let go.
Rumiko Masumoto’s story
Rumiko is brought along to a party with Yukiyo's colleagues by her friend Miyuki, who then leaves her there. At the karaoke afterwards she tells Yukiyo she loves singing so much that she goes alone, and later, seeing on Twitter where he is, she invites him to join her. She tells him she loves him, they spend the night together, and she offers to make him breakfast. He tries to love her back, but after seeing Miyuki again he breaks it off. Rumiko cannot let go. In tears she clings to him, promising to listen properly to the music he likes. He leaves her.
Riisa Nakaas Ai
A young woman who works at a girls' bar, one of the women in Yukiyo's second popular period.
Yoko Makias Motoko Karaki
Yukiyo's senior colleague at Natalie, another of the four women in his second popular period.
Nobuaki Kanekoas Daisuke Yamashita
An events producer who lives with Miyuki and turns out to be married.
Why it matters
Moteki takes a familiar figure, the shy, self-absorbed man who believes luck with women comes to him only in rare seasons, and plays his inner life as a musical, with pop songs standing in for his feelings. Hitoshi One, who made the television series, wanted the film to be a sequel that stands on its own, and it was widely honoured; Mirai Moriyama won the Mainichi Film Award for best actor. What it shows, perhaps more than it intends, is how little room such a man leaves for the women themselves. Rumiko's love is played as an awkwardness to escape, two of the four women barely register, and Miyuki's affair is chiefly an obstacle in his story. The question left open is whether being wanted, which Yukiyo craves, has anything to do with knowing how to love.