Don’t let the title fool you, Love Will Tear Us Apart is neither a Joy Division biopic, nor a fluffy romantic comedy. Instead it is an extremely violent, often hilarious, wacky analysis of love and obsession. Beginning when Wakaba (Sayu Kubota) is a child at school, Love Will Tear Us Apart chronicles her journey into womanhood; one made harder by a constant onslaught of dead bodies piling up around her.
Love Will Tear Us Apart begins in the innocent setting of primary school. Wakaba is a young girl obsessed with a pop star, who she fantasises about marrying. Her daydreams help her cope with her intense home-life where her mother is constantly berated by her father. At school she has her best friend Kanna to hang out with. In contrast to home, school life is almost idyllic for Wakaba. That is until she stands up to the resident bullies after they begin tormenting the shy Koki. Mistaking her kindness for something more, Koki is instantly smitten with Wakaba; when she later becomes a target for the bullies, he enacts a bloody revenge. It is a strong opening act that tricks the viewer with its calm approach to its darkness within. The ending shot of this section is shocking, but just a teaser for the carnage to come.
From the school tragedy, the story jumps forward a number of years. Wakaba is now on the road with her favourite band, but her dreamlife is cut short as a trip to the woods ends with everyone else dead. After this incident, time jumps again and once more sees Wakaba facing a bloody ordeal. It quickly becomes clear that whenever Wakaba is about to get close to somebody, or come under threat, that someone or something intervenes. The concept of a guardian angel is something that many believe in, but here that idea is twisted into a horrific manifestation.
The gore and kills in Love Will Tear Us Apart are ingeniously macabre. One victim ends up as sushi, with another literally torn apart; director Ken’ichi Ugana does not hold back. Nonetheless, the deaths are zany enough to retain Love Will Tear Us Apart’s lighter tone. Though graphic, the violence has a muted menace and so allows itself to become wacky rather than worrisome. The excessive reaction of the victims also helps to sell the film’s more jovial side. One potential victim opts to use a sheet glass window as a door by throwing themselves through it. This is the exact moment that Ugana’s silly side is revealed. The absurdity of the moment switches something in the viewer’s brain and suddenly it is clear that this is not a film to take too seriously.
Whilst having fun throwing gore galore onto the screen, Ugana’s story, co-written with Hirobumi Watanabe, is a great exploration of relationships. More specifically, toxic relationships. Throughout the film light is cast on a variety of users and abusers. Almost everyone that Wakaba encounters has unjust intentions for her, and though she cannot see it, the audience and her ‘protector’ can. The scenario generates an odd fairy-tale quality, Wakaba the innocent princess wandering through life, the killer her fairy godmother preventing her harm. Still, this protection raises its own issues. Ugana and Watanabe uses them as a vessel for toxic masculinity. Love Will Tear Us Apart highlights how some men interpret the most innocent of interactions as something more and use it to lay claim on a person. The ending muddies this message somewhat, but still presents some interesting analysis.
Love Will Tear Us Apart is in constant battle with itself as the sweet-natured tone is repeatedly battered by countless instances of gory violence. A film that speaks to those that enjoy fairy tales both fluffy and ferocious, Love Will Tear Us Apart is seemingly sweet with a wickedly bitter core.
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Summary
A delightful skewering of toxic masculinity and relationships, Love Will Tear Us Apart gets wild and wacky whilst still maintaining a rather wholesome facade.
Love WIll Tear Us Apart was reviewed at Grimmfest 2023.
