Popular reviews

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  Review by nick ★★★½

  Very impressive Japanese gay romance. This is sexy, restrained, and ultimately devastating. It examines the full life cycle of an outbursting fling and its aftermath, while putting everything in an authentically queer context.

  Despite its somewhat overdone premise in queer cinema, Egoist manages to provide something refreshing to the table, mostly thanks to the crazy chemistry between Ryohei Suzuki and Hio Miyazawa, especially in those short yet memorable sex scenes. It's a sunshine-drenched, automatically supportable relationship that easily puts smiles on your face, until things turn dark unexpectedly and shift the narrative tonally. At first, I was skeptical of the twist, but ultimately Egoist feels like a puzzle that only works when all the pieces are put together, and everything makes sense after the tearjerking last 10 minutes, which enables this to jump out of the limitations of the LGBTQ genre and aim for more. Recommended.

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  Review by Natalie ★★★★ 1

  Love in a time of capitalism.

  Wow, what an immense performance from Ryohei Suzuki. This character is so fully realised: the physicality, his reactions to different characters, his facial expressions, his vocal inflections... it's so fleshed out. The plot of the film may seem melodramatic, but the execution is anything but. It's incredibly intimate, humanistic and sensitive. Sometimes the use of handheld camerawork can be a cheap shorthand for "rawness" in "indie cinema"~ but here, it really works. There's also a real sense of modern gay life in Japan, with several really enjoyable scenes of Kosuke's friendships with other gay men.

  The title "Egoist" dwells on the central theme, questioning the connection between ego and love. It asks if Kosuke's…

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  Review by Adam Putra ★★★★

  I really don't understand what love is.

  It's okay if you don't understand. As long as we feel that you love us, isn't that enough?

  Kosuke basically can do what straight can't.

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  Review by holly hindsight ★★★★½ 2

  “i dont know what love is”
  “you dont need to know” 

  this will give you the urge to wade through a sea of people and sprint towards your lover bc love wont wait (i cried)

  i thought this would be about a toxic romance, as suggested by the title (i read the synopsis then forgot all of it) (“egoist” means “selfish” in japanese) but i ended up being really surprised by how the relationships have turned out, and above all i do feel that we are all selfish when it comes to love

  i loved how intimate this felt, how theres no “emotional” score, how kosuke is trying so hard to stop himself from grinning ear to ear after sending…

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  Review by lrok ★★★★★ 2

  first half: 🤪🥵😳🥹
  second half: 🥲😭☹️😶

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  Review by Arthur Pontara ★★★

  🇺🇸 In English:

  Lately, I’ve noticed an explosion of productions on LGBTQIAP+ themes in Japan, from reality shows like The Boyfriend (2024) on Netflix to films like Monster (2023), His (2020), and Egoist. The latter two, in fact, feature model Hio Miyazawa as one of the protagonists. Seeing this movement in a country known for its social conservatism makes me quite optimistic, as it tends to create a support network among Eastern artists, allowing more works on these themes to be supported, funded, and perpetuated.

  Egoist, in turn, is a film that, despite touching on interesting topics like financial inequality inside a relationship, school dropout, and prostitution, avoids delving deeply into any of them, instead focusing on the generic maturation…

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  Review by Zizy ★★½

  well i'm fuckin sad

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  Review by Eunice ★★★★

  “is he your son?”
  -“no”
  -“yes, he is,”

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  Review by DamRibeiro ★★★★ 16

  Como vocês fazem isso comigo meu deus, por um momento achava que dessa vez veria uma história de gays em ascensão é gays vitoriosos, mas no final de tudo ganhei mais depressão, tô tão triste com esse final sério acabo comigo, não e sempre que eu do de cara com obras queer japonesas tão maduras e fortes, então Egoist foi uma grata surpresa, e um belo achado, eles me enganaram direitinho pq eu achei que realmente tudo iria para um caminho feliz, até que foi feliz mais não por muito tempo, Kosuke um cara rico que tem uma vida instável conhece através de um amigo o Ryuta um instrutor de treinos particular, logo os dias vão passando e eles vão…

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  Review by Cesar 🎱 ★★★★

  Algo así como un Blue Valentine para gays. Una historia deprimente pero profundamente realista sobre la tragedia del amor, la belleza del egoísmo y los desgarradores deseos de cambiar lo que no podemos.

  Me fascina cómo su título es más complejo de lo que aparenta. El egoísmo es humano e inalienable en las relaciones de cualquier tipo. Queremos satisfacción, a veces a expensas de los deseos y necesidades del otro. Ambos protagonistas son egoístas a su manera, y en lugar de hacer juicios morales, el director los comprende y acompaña en el proceso de descubrir qué quieren (o no) de su vida.

  Es una película sensual, delicada y sensible. No hay un ápice de frialdad y distancia emocional. No es uno de esos dramas sobrios de cámara estática (no tienen nada de malo, pero su póster y tráiler lo aparentan). Está repleto de movimiento y energía, aunque a veces el lugar al que nos dirige es sombrío y desolador.

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  Review by coline ★★★½

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

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  Review by maria ★★★½ 6

  "Kosuke san, do you like me?"

  What a performance from Suzuki Ryohei. I don't know if this would have worked so well with a different actor as Kosuke and a different director. Not to be unfair, Miyazawa Hio also does a really good job and the leads have chemistry (it takes two to tango) but his character just doesn't get as much development and as a result he doesn't get to shine fully.

  This is Kosuke's film after all, the egoist who may or may not realize that kindness for the wrong reasons is not genuine kindness. Or is it? That's for the audience to decide in the end. Is he really an egoist or is he just desperate for love? Did he manage to save anyone and in the process save himself?

  It's to the director's credit that the film is both a joy to watch and a haunting, heartbreaking affair. That eyebrow scene oof.