Lonely Glory (1 Star)

This is the second film I've watched in the 2023 Japanese Film Festival. It may be the last.

If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know that I rarely give a one star rating. In my description at the top right I say that two stars means "Poor, not worth watching", whereas one star means "Awful, avoid at all costs". That brief description doesn't say it all. The real difference is that a two star film is a film that I don't like, whereas a one star film is a film that's so bad that I can't imagine anyone liking it. That applies to "Lonely Glory".

Haruka is a young woman who's the co-owner of a company that makes a counselling app. After being accused of bullying an employee she resigns rather than apologise. She goes back home to her family, just in time for the funeral of her mother. Her father died a few years ago, so there are just four children left, two boys and two girls. Haruka's elder brother and sister run the family's noodle restaurant. Haruka's brother sits around all day doing nothing. Haruka suggests the restaurant (also the family house) should be sold because it's unprofitable. In actual fact she wants the money from the sale as the start capital for her new company.

The older brother is in love with a young farmer's daughter. The older sister is divorced and unable to move on. Haruka encourages her younger brother to work, so he buys defective items (such as television remote controls) and repairs them to sell them on Ebay, but he hardly makes any money.

Does that sound like an interesting film? It's even worse than my description makes it sound. It's a painfully dull family drama. None of the main characters have any charisma. I had difficulty watching it to the end.

I intended to watch all 12 of the festival films. Now I'm not so sure. I think it's more important that I catch up with my backlog of Smallville episodes.

Life is too short for bad films.