The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese

Isao Yukisada's 2020 Japanese film follows Kyoichi, whose indecisiveness leads him to cheat repeatedly. His wife hires a private investigator to look into him, but the man hired turns out to be someone he knew at university, and he pursues his own wishes. The film presents the relationship less as a love story than as an imbalance of power. Kyoichi chooses nothing for himself; he is shaped by other people's wants, and that passivity is the real subject. It is adapted from Yoneda Kou's manga. Yukisada shows the sexual material directly rather than obliquely. Tadayoshi Okura and Ryo Narita lead, and the difference in their manner sets the balance of the relationship. Who it's for: those who like Japanese relationship drama and manga adaptations. Who it's not for: viewers who expect clear consent in a relationship; the film shows several scenes where consent is blurred without criticising them.