HorRHIFFic 2024: ‘Love Will Tear us Apart’ Review
Stars: Sayu Kubota, Yuzu Aoki, Mituru Fukikoshi, Akaji Maro, Shunsuke Tanaka, Hitomi Takahashi, Atsuko Maeda | Written by Ken’ichi Ugana, Hirobumi Watanabe | Directed by Ken’ichi Ugana
Love Will Tear Us Apart is the latest film from director Ken’ichi Ugana, who has made a name for himself on the festival circuit with films like Extraneous Matter and Visitors. His latest is a strange tale that takes one part It Follows and one part slasher movie.
The film follows Wakaba, a young girl whose father is an abusive alcoholic and whose mother is too timid to defend herself or Wakaba. But that doesn’t stop Wakaba from defending her fellow classmate Koki who is being bullied by other students at elementary school. However that defence, and subsequent friendship between the two, is ruined by the school bullies turning their attention to Wakaba. But that attention doesn’t last long as the bullies throw themselves off the school roof, seemingly shamed to suicide by their actions.
The film then skips forward seven years as Wakaba and her childhood friend Kanna are on the road with a band who seemingly are more interested in partying than playing music. Stying at a summer house, one of the group makes a pass at Wakaba only to be rebuffed; whilst another couple, Moeka and Tomoya, do the usual slasher cliche of heading into the woods to have sex. Big mistake. You see there’s a creepy guy in the woods, dressed in a boiler suit and wearing a mask… So far so cliched.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. The house they’re staying at has a fully decorated kid’s bedroom, complete with a transit that moves on its own and one of THOSE cymbal-smashing monkeys! Yes, it seems like Ken’ichi Ugana and his co-writer Hirobumi Watanabe have really hit those horror movie tropes hard.
But then Love Will Tear Us Apart ISN’T really a traditional slasher movie. Even though it, at times, feels like one. You see there’s a supernatural element to proceedings as Wakaba is apparently haunted by the killer – who, it feels, acts like a protector against any harm Wakaba would come to. But is it some kind of supernatural entity? Or someone in Wakaba’s past? Unfortunately for Wakaba, her primary suspect Koki – the schoolboy she helped in the film’s opening – died after leaving school. So that rules him out as a suspect right? Right? But what about Wakaba’s alcoholic father, is he taking his abusive nature to the next level? It’s a fantastic mystery element that keeps the audience invested in the story outside of the typical slasher cliche of wondering who’s next.
Speaking of slasher movie killers, this film’s boiler suit-wearing killer adorns themselves with a steampunk-esque gas mask that reminded me a LOT of the appearance of the killer in Skinned Deep – sans the iron jaw of course! And much like that killer, Love Will Tear Us Apart‘s silent slasher gets very creative with their kills, with nary a repeat death among them and some are rendered in all their gory glory!
Love Will Tear Us Apart takes yet another forward jump in time as Wakaba is now in Tokyo, and falls head over heels for Yuki, a man she literally, LITERALLY, bumped into on the street. Of course Wakaba can’t have anything nice and Yuki is soon attacked by the very same killer that took out the band one year earlier. And by very soon I mean the same day, with Wakaba chasing Yuki and the masked killer through the streets of Tokyo, but to no – eventual – avail. You have to see what happens to Yuki to believe it. One of THE best “dead body” reveals in slasher movie history. Ever.
Enough is enough though, right? Well Wakaba thinks so too, especially when she finds out Kanna has been murdered, as she takes up martial arts training with a master she finds on YouTube, spending two years under his tutelage. Eventually things come to a head as Wakaba, Moeka’s detective father and the masked killer come face-to-face and the reasons behind the slaughter are revealed…
A complex take on the slasher movie and its myriad of clichés, and stereotypes, Love Will Tear Us Apart is a refreshingly new take on a well-worn formula – one that turns the psycho-killer trope on its head, leaving you pondering just who is the bad guy and who is the good guy in this story; and revealing what you’ve really been watching is a love story for the ages!
**** 4/5
Love Will Tear Us Apart screens on Thursday, February 29th 2024 as part of this year’s Romford Horror Film Festival.
