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Close Your Eyes and Hold Me

Country: Japan, Language: Japanese, 90 mins

Original Title

Me Wo Tojite Daite
  • Director: Itsumichi Isomura
  • Writer: Yuka Honcho; Shungiku Uchida
  • Producer: Keisuke Konishi; Toru Uemura

CGiii Comment

Amane is a Japanese office worker, a victim of the big business machine and the concrete jungle of a Japanese big city. He has a girlfriend, Juri, but she is not very exciting. Amane is driving home when he accidentally runs over a woman. He visits her in hospital but she doesn't accept any offers of compensation, and disappears. He becomes obsessed with her, and he eventually finds her: her name is Hanabusa and she is a hostess in a club, but there is a twist: it's a transvestite night club. And, yes, she is really a man underneath her very elegant and beautiful feminine appearance Amane recoils, but is clearly inclined to go along with it, which he does. Nothing much happens that night, but Amane is still obsessed and visits her in the club again, and eventually they make love at home. To comply with Japanese moral requirements, a table-lamp is conveniently positioned between the camera and their lower bodies while this is in progress.

Amane is a little naive in matters of love-making, and Hanabusa shows him some new techniques, both as the passive and the active partner; for Amane it's perfect love-making. Amane is now hooked, and drops Juri. Juri is unhappy with this, and they argue, and then Juri finds where Hanabusa lives and confronts her at her home. Hanabusa deflects Juri's anger and they make love, with Hanabusa taking the male part. Juri enjoys it, and for a moment we wonder if this pairing might be permanent, but she leaves and gets even more angry at Amane for leaving her. She consults a man who works with Amane, and seeking consolation, they have sex. Now Juri's period is late; she goes to Amane's flat to confront him, and to pressure him into marrying her. But Hanabusa is there, and the confrontation degenerates, and Juri leaves, in tears. She has already threatened suicide if Amane doesn't go back to her; will she do something desperate?


Trailer... 

Cast & Characters

Kumiko Takeda as Hanabusa;
Kazuya Takahashi as Amane;
Natsue Yoshimura as Juri;
Kunihiko Ida as Takayanagi;
Shinobu Sato as Nurse;
Koji Sueyoshi as Nanaomi;
Gen Yamakawa as Doctor