Parade

Took me a few days to finish watching this one.  I kept getting detoured to do something else so I scheduled a night where I put everything away so I could finish it.

"Parade" is a 2LDK (2 bedrooms, Living/Dining room, & Kitchen) that belongs to Naoki Ihara, played by Tatsuya Fujiwara.  His name didn't ring a bell but his face sure did.  I had to look him up to find he was Light Yagami from the live action "Death Note" movies.  He was also in "Battle Royale" and "Battle Royale 2".  I saw "Battle Royale" but I honestly wasn't paying much attention to it.  My daughter had seen it and said it was good and unfortunately, I agreed to watch it one night and I ended up falling asleep on and off so I may as well not have seen it at all.  I remember absolutely nothing about it.  Guess I'll have to watch it again. Tatsuya is also from the movie "Kaiji, The Ultimate Gambler".  There are 2 of those movies but I've only seen the first one.

So, the 2LDK is actually rented by Naoki but there are 3 others that live there when the movie starts and eventually they end up with 1 more.  By all appearances, Naoki seems like the only one that is all together.  He has a job working for a film distribution company.  The original 3 each have their issues.

Kotomi is an out of work actress that is dating a J-drama actor.  She sees him when his schedule allows and she seems to be content with that.  Mirai is an illustrator who drinks and smokes a lot.  There's something about her past that she's been holding onto by way of a VHS tape that oddly soothes her when she watches it even though it was something that scared her when she witnessed  it live when she was young.

At some point in the movie, a guy wakes up in their house.  Each roommate is pleasant with Satoru and they all assume that someone else has brought him into the apartment.  Satoru turns out to be a male prostitute that hangs out in a local park waiting to be picked up by men.

A sub-story is happening while we watch these people go about their lives.  There have been a few attacks on women not far from their apartment, that have been publicized on television.  Mirai begins to suspect Satoru since the attacks started more or less when Satoru wandered into their apartment.

That's all I'll say.  At first the movie seemed pretty pointless to me.  There didn't seem to be a plot and it felt like the "story" was going nowhere.  I kept watching because I figured sooner or later it would get better.  The characters grew on me though so watching the rest was bearable.  By the end of the movie, I was sad to see it end.

Overall a good movie.  I'd watch it again.