Sweet Little Lies
スイートリトルライズ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A couple with a picture-book marriage each take a lover; the lies are gentle and the loneliness is not.
Ruriko, who makes teddy bears, and Satoshi, who works for an IT company, have been married for three years. They have no children and are still as gentle with each other as lovers: she winds the old clock each morning, makes his breakfast, and tells him the small events of her day when he comes home. But they no longer sleep together. Satoshi spends his evenings playing video games behind the locked door of his room, and when Ruriko needs him inside their own home she calls his mobile phone. His sister thinks they are a strange couple. Ruriko believes they are still connected.
A young man, Haruo, has been begging her manager for a bear that is not for sale. He comes to her exhibition, and moved by his sincerity, Ruriko lets him have it. They meet again by chance at a video rental shop and fall in love. Meanwhile Satoshi goes to a reunion of his university diving club and meets Shiho, a junior who once had a crush on him. Lively and young, she pursues him knowing he is married, and they begin to meet. When Shiho says she wants to dive in the sea at Izu, Satoshi suggests a trip there to Ruriko, knowing she never goes into the water, and, leaving her behind, sleeps with Shiho for the first time. Haruo has come to Izu too, and Ruriko spends the time with him. Back home, husband and wife carry on as if nothing has happened.
Then Haruo says he is leaving his girlfriend, Miyako, and Ruriko at last opens up to him. Haruo and Miyako part, but Ruriko leaves Haruo too. Satoshi goes on seeing Shiho until, at an aquarium, he pulls free of her arm and walks away: plainly their last meeting. When Bingo, the old dog belonging to Ruriko's elderly neighbour, Kimie, dies, Ruriko and Satoshi bury him in the garden, and that night they share a bath for the first time in a long while. In the last scene Ruriko sits on the stairs outside their flat, waiting for Satoshi. "I'm home," she says. He is the one who has come home, he answers; has she been somewhere? She has, she says. And him? He will be home soon.
Starring
Miki Nakatanias Ruriko Iwamoto
A teddy-bear maker three years married, who keeps a gentle, orderly home and feels the loneliness at its centre.
Ruriko Iwamoto’s story
Ruriko phones Satoshi behind his locked door when she needs him, and tells him that being with him makes her very lonely. When a young man, Haruo, begs for one of her bears, she gives it to him. They meet again by chance and become lovers, and he follows her even to Izu, where Satoshi has taken her on a trip. When Haruo says he will leave his girlfriend, Miyako, Ruriko opens up to him; but after Miyako hands the bear back, telling her she is not the only one who is lonely, Ruriko leaves Haruo too. She and Satoshi bury Bingo, her neighbour's old dog. In the last scene she waits for him on the stairs outside their flat. 'I'm home,' she says. She has been somewhere, she tells him, and he says he will be home soon.
Nao Omorias Satoshi Iwamoto
Ruriko's husband, who works for an IT company and retreats each night into video games behind a locked door.
Satoshi Iwamoto’s story
At a diving-club reunion Satoshi meets Shiho, a junior who once had a crush on him; she knows he is married and pursues him anyway. When she wants to dive at Izu, he plans a trip there with Ruriko, who never goes into the water, and the affair begins. At home, one night, he opens his arms to Ruriko unasked for the first time, their private ritual. Taking Ruriko to the restaurant where he dined with Shiho, he repeats Shiho's words and falls silent. At an aquarium he pulls free of Shiho's arm, says sorry and walks away. He and Ruriko bury Bingo, the neighbour's old dog. In the last scene he climbs the outside stairs to find Ruriko waiting. He is the one who has come home, he says; has she been somewhere? He will be home soon.
Chizuru Ikewakias Shiho Miura
A younger member of Satoshi's university diving club who once had a crush on him and now pursues him.
Juichi Kobayashias Haruo Tsugawa
A young man who begs for one of Ruriko's bears and falls in love with her.
Sakura Andoas Miyako
Haruo's girlfriend, whom he leaves because of Ruriko.
Why it matters
Sweet Little Lies is about a marriage that looks ideal from outside and is quietly starving within, and it declines to treat the affairs that follow as either crime or cure. Hitoshi Yazaki, filming Kaori Ekuni's novel, catches a condition that is easy to recognise and hard to name: affection intact, sex gone, two people living side by side in separate rooms, calling each other on the phone within the same walls. Each finds someone else, and each keeps it gently hidden to protect what they still have at home. The film's tag line states its question plainly: people lie to what they want to protect, or to what they are trying to protect. The ending, a shared bath after a small death and a wife waiting on the stairs for her husband to come home, offers warmth rather than resolution, and leaves open whether the lies saved this marriage or simply became part of it.