Mental illness takes many forms, but depression is among the most baffling to family and friends, since the afflicted may be physically healthy and verbally coherent but barely stir from bed for weeks or months at a time.
But as Kosai Sekine shows with compassion and insight in his first feature, "Love At Least," the depressed heroine, Yasuko (single-named Shuri), is anything but slothful, though she has been living with her tolerant boyfriend, Tsunagi (Masaki Suda), for nearly three years while sleeping most of the day and doing no housework, let alone paid work. Her only lifeline to normal society is the text messages she exchanges with her older sister.
Based on a novel by Yukiko Motoya, "Love At Least" gives us only glimpses of Yasuko's past, including her drunken first encounter with Tsunagi at a konpa (group date).