Archive

Boys, Be, Love

What She Likes...

KUSANO Shôgo

Japan2021122min

Synopsis

What She Likes… is based on a webnovel of the same title by Asahara Naoto and was already adapted into a TV drama in 2019, which proved popular. This film version was made by Kusano Shôgo, director of Bittersweet (2016) and The Longest Photo in the World (2018). It’s a story about a gay high school student, Jun, and Sae, a girl who fantasizes about Boys’ Love, crossing the dichotomy between love and friendship. What She Likes… is an exceptional youth film, with the sensuality peculiar to Japanese teen movies and asks serious questions of LGBTQ drama. It also explores the blind spot of emotion, where no-one knows how it develops on this journey in the romance genre, using a pretty boy and a lovely girl as the medium. (JIN Myunghyun)

Diretor

KUSANO Shôgo

Kusano was born in 1984 in Gunma, Japan. While studying Sociology at Waseda University, he debuted as a film director with his feature film, Mogera Wogura(2009). Later, directing Empty(2012), Bittersweet(2016), and The Longest Photo in the World(2018), he became the maestro of the youth film genre.

Credit

Producer
MAEHARA Minori, MIYAMOTO Aya
Screenplay
KUSANO Shôgo
Author of the Original Work
ASAHARA Naoto
Cinematographer
TSUKINAGA Yuta
Editor
URABE Naohiro
Sound
SAITO Taiyo
Music
ASHIYA Gary
Production Design
ADACHI Norifumi
Sales
ColorBird Inc. (World), Media Castle (Kor)