Based on Erica Sakurazawa’s shojo manga Love Vibes, this chaste lesbian romance earned Momoko Andô (who’s the daughter of actor-director Eiji Okuda) the soubriquet ‘the Japanese Sofia Coppola’. It’s certainly an assured debut, lit up by flashes of visual flair and Smashing Pumpkin James Iha’s score.
Furthermore, Eriko Nakamura excels as the kooky prosthetic sculptress who lures disillusioned student Hikari Mitsushima from her slacker boyfriend, only for Mitsushima to have a crisis of sapphic confidence. However, while slick, the picture’s precision reinforces its superficiality, with themes of identity, gender and physical beauty left underdeveloped.