Kabukicho Love Hotel
Kabukicho Love Hotel (さよなら歌舞伎町, Sayonara Kabukichō, lit. "Goodbye Kabukichō") 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]
| Kabukicho Love Hotel | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Ryūichi Hiroki |
| Written by | Haruhiko Arai Futoshi Nakano |
| Starring |
|
| Music by | Ayano Tsuji |
| Cinematography | Atushiro Nabeshima |
Release date |
|
Running time | 135 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese Korean |
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]
References
- "TIFF Adds 'Clouds of Sils Maria' and 'Two Days, One Night,' Reveals 5 More Lineups". Indiewire. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
- "TIFF.net | Kabukicho Love Hotel". tiff.net. Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
- "Hot Japanese Stars Sometani Shota and Maeda Atsuko Say 'Sayonara Kabukicho' | Variety". variety.com. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
- Tsui, Clarence (5 September 2014). "'Kabukicho Love Hotel' ('Sayonara kabukicho'): Toronto Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
- Brown, Don (23 January 2015). "One Take on Japanese Cinema: A filmmaker equally comfortable with the commercial and the controversial". The Asahi Shimbun. Archived from the original on 29 March 2015.
