‘Honesty,” Billy Joel famously lamented in song, “is hardly ever heard.” The characters of Rikiya Imaizumi’s ensemble drama “Their Distance” (“Shiranai, Futari”) seem to have been listening: They are honest to a fault with each other about their feelings, even ones that hurt their listener.
Is this a generational thing? Seeing this well-crafted if somewhat wispy film at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, I remembered being more guarded — or, shall we say, devious? — in my 20s. I didn’t want to break up with someone because I had a passing fancy for someone else — at least right away. Yes, “devious” is the word we’re looking for.
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