Kabukicho Love Hotel Explained

Kabukicho Love Hotel
Director:	Ryūichi Hiroki
Music:	Ayano Tsuji
Cinematography:	Atushiro Nabeshima
Runtime:	135 minutes
Country:	Japan
Language:	Japanese Korean

is a 2014 Japanese drama film directed by Ryūichi Hiroki, starring Shota Sometani and Atsuko Maeda. It was selected to be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.^[1]

Plot

Having lost his job at a five-star hotel, Toru (Shota Sometani) is now a manager of a love hotel in the titular district of Kabukicho in Tokyo. Toru's girlfriend, Saya (Atsuko Maeda) is an aspiring singer. Saya doesn't know that Toru manages a love hotel. She ends up being a client there one night, where Toru discovers that she has agreed to sleep with a music executive so she can get a record deal.

Cast

Shota Sometani as Toru Takahashi^[2] ^[3]
Atsuko Maeda as Saya Iijima^[2] ^[3]
Lee Na-ra as Hena^[2] ^[4]
Roy (Son Il-kwon) as Chong-su^[2] ^[4]
Kaho Minami as Satomi Suzuki^[3]
Yutaka Matsushige as Yasuo Ikezawa^[3]
Nao Ōmori as Kazuki Takenaka^[3]
Jun Murakami as Kagehisa Amemiya^[3]
Tomorowo Taguchi as Masashi Kubota^[3]
Shugo Oshinari as Masaya Hayase
Miwako Wagatsuma as Hinako Fukumoto
Aoba Kawai as Rikako Fujita
Tom Miyazaki as Ryuhei Shinjo
Asuka Hinoi as Miyu Takahashi

Reception

Don Brown of Asahi Shimbun called it "one of Hiroki's most purely entertaining and satisfying films to date".^[5]

Notes and References

Web site: TIFF Adds 'Clouds of Sils Maria' and 'Two Days, One Night,' Reveals 5 More Lineups . 28 August 2014 . Indiewire. 12 August 2014 .
Web site: TIFF.net | Kabukicho Love Hotel. tiff.net. 1 September 2014. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20140820024627/http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/contemporary-world-cinema/kabukicho-love-hotel. 20 August 2014.
Web site: Hot Japanese Stars Sometani Shota and Maeda Atsuko Say 'Sayonara Kabukicho' | Variety. 14 July 2014 . variety.com. 1 September 2014.
Web site: 'Kabukicho Love Hotel' ('Sayonara kabukicho'): Toronto Review. The Hollywood Reporter. Clarence. Tsui. 5 September 2014.
Web site: One Take on Japanese Cinema: A filmmaker equally comfortable with the commercial and the controversial. The Asahi Shimbun. Don. Brown. 23 January 2015. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150329081412/http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan/movies/AJ201501230006. 29 March 2015.