Love on Trial - RENAI SAIBAN

Pitch

A rising young pop star, Mai does the unthinkable : she falls in love, despite the strict prohibition clause in her contract. When the relationship becomes public knowledge, Mai’s own agency takes her to court. Confronted by an inflexible machine, the two lovers decide to fight it out, not only for their future, but to stand up for the most ordinary and universal right, the right to love. “In a male-dominated Japanese society, it would seem that people find it quite acceptable that a beautiful young girl should be staged as a sex object for men, and that to do so, it is perfectly natural to ignore a basic, fundamental human freedom, namely the right to love whoever you choose. The need to preserve the purity and virginity of these idols shows the extent of male influence, and the underlying violence of this control in Japanese society. Through the portrayal of these two young lovers, the film illustrates the isolation and challenges with which people are confronted when they dare to stand up and fight for life against a perverse social system determined to take no account of them and to break them.” Koji Fukada