Movies about female friendship are no longer rare: In the 25 years since the seminal "Thelma and Louise," even the Japanese film industry has figured out that two or more women bonding on screen can be good for the box office. But what about feuding female cousins?
Based on Nozomi Katsura's bestselling 2010 novel "Iyana Onna," veteran actress Hitomi Kuroki's debut as a director takes this unusual premise in conventional directions, almost as though she and scriptwriter Masafumi Nishida went down the list of J-film cliches and ticked all the boxes.
First, despite the film's Japanese title of "Iyana Onna," which means "hateful woman," the film's women are all lovable types, however unlovely their behavior may be at times. (The film's English title, "Desperate Sunflowers," is an ungainly expression of this.) Second, there are many plot turns aimed at extracting hankies from purses and pockets, including timely and untimely ends for this character and that. Whether one or both heroines fall into the doomed category I won't say — but you can surely guess.