Asian Drama

Rei works as a curator at a photography museum in Yamanashi Prefecture. She visits a photo gallery in Tokyo. There, she is fascinated by the photos taken by Haruma. The next day, Rei contacts Haruma and asks him to take pictures of her body. Haruma is embarrassed by Rei’s request, but he takes her picture. The two become attracted to each other, but Haruma’s pregnant girlfriend Natsumi becomes aware of Rei.

Tadashi is about to take his final school examinations. Unbeknown to anyone, he has fallen in love with his fellow-pupil, Kota, and doesn’t dare to tell anyone. One hot summer’s day, some of the other schoolboys taunt him, calling him a ponce. This destroys all hope he ever had of getting together with Kota.

Thoroughly depressed, Tadashi meets a gay couple on the train. Hiroki and Sinji are fascinating; their conversation is so stimulating that, before he realises what he is doing, he decides to follow them.

It is completely irrelevant how old you are and how often it happens to you, falling in love is always just like the first time. In HATSU-KOI, director Imaizumi Koichi tells a story about coming of age, coming out and a gay marriage that is sprinkled with both love and hard-core sex, at the centre of which is a teenager who doesn’t yet know what he wants.