Eiji Uchida's scabrous new comedy about the struggles of a down-and-out indie film director, "Lowlife Love" ("Gesu no Ai"), confirms what I have known for years: Japanese show business can be brutal to the weak or clueless. They end up used and discarded, like so many human Kleenexes.
In the film, which premiered at this year's Rotterdam film festival, aspiring actresses face blatant harassment in the form of pawing hands or even straight-up requests for sexual favors in exchange for work. But Maya Okano's heroine — who begins as a naive if talented student in the director's bogus "acting school" — uses sex to pry open doors and climb to the top on her own terms. And she is not the only one. In interviews, Uchida says the film reflects the industry's sordid reality, while quickly adding that he based the story on secondhand sources, not his own "low-life" experiences.
Are the industry's heights any better? Recent headlines show that even top stars are under similar pressures to go along to get along, as well as facing the ever-present risk of their names disappearing into oblivion — like a used Kleenex tossed from a cliff.