I like you: I like you very much

This low-budget slice-of-life drama broke new ground in Japan in its representation of gay relationships and sex. The film centres on the shifting social and sexual relations between three teenage boys. The secure relationship between two of them, Shin and Yu, is jeopardised when Yu impulsively cruises a stranger waiting for a train and tells him that he likes him. This casual meeting sets off a series of sexual encounters. Shot in the port town of Kochi the film offers a candid portrayal of small-town gay lives and male desire. The first feature from high profile avant-garde filmmaker Oki, who directed, wrote, edited and photographed the film, it contains his trademark hand held camera work and informal visual style. The film falls into the Japanese genre of the “pink film” (or pinku eiga), a term that has been used since the 1960s to signify a variety of erotic, sado-erotic, and politico-erotic films, straight, gay, or in-between, whose small budgets, often brief running times, place them outside the genre of the mainstream feature. Cast includes Hisanori Kitakaze, Kazufumi Nishimoto and Hiroyuki Oki. In Japanese with English subtitles.