Hatsukoi or “first love” is a big topic of Japanese teen films, as well as much else in the popular culture. The innocence and purity is an attraction, as is the almost inevitable fleetingness of the relationship, if it indeed is one, since one party is often far more besotted than the other.
The English term “puppy love,” which conjures up images of youthful crushes that briefly bloom and inconsequentially fade, is not quite equivalent, since hatsukoi can leave a deep, lasting mark.
That is certainly the case with Aihara Noboru, the hero of Yakumo Saiji’s My Pretend Girlfriend (Momose, Kotchi wo Muite). As the film begins he is the 30-year-old author of a first novel, who has returned to his former hometown for a promotional event.
There Noboru (Mukai Osamu) runs into Tetsuko, a former classmate who is now married to Miyazaki, a friend from Noboru’s childhood. As they talk in a coffee shop, with Tetsuko’s young daughter in tow, the conversation turns to their high school days when Miyazaki and Tetsuko were a popular couple atop the school pecking order, while Noboru was a social zero with one real pal, the porky and equally girlfriendless Tanabe.
One day Miyazaki (Kudo Asuka) calls Noboru (Takeuchi Taro) into the school library. Noboru, it turns out, had glimpsed Miyazaki and Momose, a cute girl with retro short hair (see photos of 1920s star Louise Brooks for reference), having an intimate moment at the town’s train station.
Miyazaki fears that gossip about this tryst will reach the ears of Tetsuko (Ishibashi Anna). At the same time, he doesn’t want to end his fling with Momose, so he asks Noboru to serve as his “beard” – that is, fake romantic partner.
Noboru, who has long looked up to the older, cooler Miyazaki and feels he owes him big-time for what he describes as “saving my life,” reluctantly agrees. Momose, a bossy type, immediately takes charge of this phony relationship, grabbing Noboru’s hand as they walk out the school gates to the curious gaze of classmates – and immediately dropping it with disgust once they are on the street. “Your hands are sweaty,” she complains.
Despite this and other comic moments, My Pretend Girlfriend takes Noboru’s dilemma seriously, especially when it becomes obvious that he has feelings for his lovely tormentor.
He is spending much of his free school time, day after day, in the company of a desirable girl who turns on the charm when others are around and talks to him frankly when they aren’t. True, she doesn’t hide her contempt for everything from his unkempt hair to his lamentable taste in clothes, but she also opens up to him emotionally in ways she can’t with others, including Miyazaki. Though not exactly a friend, Noboru has certain benefits.
No wonder his heart beats faster when he is with her.
Even so, he wants to end this massively awkward farce sooner than later – and so does Momose. But she also can’t help noticing that Noboru is an honest, decent guy, unlike Miyazaki, whom she alternatively loves and hates.
Based on a novel by Nakata Eiichi, My Pretend Girlfriend may have a contrived premise – nerdy teenage boys are about as likely to fly as find themselves with a fake girlfriend like Momose, but Noboru’s basic situation – hopelessly in love with a girl who loves the wrong guy, is common in any society, country or century.
The film, however, is uncommon in its sympathy for not only its ostensible hero, but also the girl who causes him so much misery.
As played by former idol singer Hayami Akari, in her first starring role, Momose is more than a self-deluded clinger to a cad. She is capable of feeling and caring for others, beginning with members of her struggling single-mom household. She is also not afraid to say what she thinks or to go for what she wants – that is, she has more in common with the notoriously bold Ms. Brooks than just her hairstyle.
The film’s end is implicit in its beginning, but Momose nonetheless remains something of an enigma, just as so many first loves are in later memory. Frozen in a moment of time, forever out of reach.
Mark Schilling