Japanese movies about women who became fast friends usually feature a guy or two who threaten the harmony of the central pair. Yugo Sakamoto’s “Nemurubaka: Hypnic Jerks,” for example, fits that description, even though its male romantic interests are complete idiots.

Aya Igashi’s spikily unconventional coming-of-age drama ”Love Doesn't Matter to Me” falls into the female friendship category but, based on a novel by Ayano Takeda, it turns standard genre tropes on their heads. Its two main protagonists find themselves in an oil-and-water friendship while coming to reject the expectation, which is often pushed on women here, that they will find happiness in love, be it from families or partners. This rejection, which is signaled right in the title, also extends to the baseline belief that human beings are good at heart and, therefore, ought to be forgiven for their various sins.

That the film asserts the opposite with cliched plot turns and on-the-nose dialogue doesn’t negate its impact and truth. Some people, it rightly says, are just too toxic to be tolerated. Also, it optimistically affirms that two women can bond without the glue of sex and romance.