Sefure no Pride: Ketsui Regular Edition Blu-ray

Hideo Jojo directs the second part of this film adaptation of Yoriko Minato’s Sefure no Pride. Beginning with a reunion between former classmates, the two films follow a relationship whose rules exclude dates, anniversaries and jealousy, while the feelings beneath those rules continue to change. The manga, launched in 2011 and published by Futabasha’s Jour Comics, had reached more than 4.3 million copies across print and digital editions when the adaptation arrived twelve years later. Its appeal rests on tangled emotions and a frank portrayal of adult relationships, viewed from a woman’s perspective.

Aika Yukihira plays Shoko Morimura, a twice-divorced temporary worker raising her daughter alone. After her first leading film role in Watashi no Dorei ni Narinasai Chapter 2, her work has ranged from Life: Untitled to the television dramas Ichikei’s Crow and Reversal Orchestra. Sho Aoyagi plays Kazuki Kitada, Shoko’s first love: a divorced obstetrician and gynecologist admired for both his professional skill and appearance. A member of Gekidan Exile, Aoyagi won the Japan Movie Critics Award for a newcomer for Today, I’ll Start Our Love and went on to the HiGH&LOW series and Alice in Borderland.

The cast also includes Moemi Katayama, known for We Couldn’t Become Adults and The Eternal Minute, as their former classmate Hanae Shindo, who has a relationship with Kazuki. Stage and musical actor Shinya Niiro, whose television work includes The 13 Lords of the Shogun, plays Shoko’s supervisor Kuriyama. Akari Takaishi, whose credits include My Happy Marriage, Baby Assassins 2, Nihon Toitsu: Kanto-hen, Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi and My Worst Friend, appears as runaway Saki Yamada. Yudai Ishibashi, seen in Believers and Small, Slow but Steady, plays young boxer Takeshi Ichihara.

Jojo brings experience from more than one hundred productions, including On the Edge of Their Seats, To Be Killed by a High School Girl, Believers and Love Nonetheless. He began his career in pink cinema and received an excellence award at the 28th Pink Grand Prix for Etsuraku Kosaten. Ketsui also gives particular weight to Ichihara’s development as a boxer: inspired by his feelings for Shoko and his wish to propose, he accepts a seemingly unwinnable match, in a sporting storyline that recalls Rocky.

Shoko now meets Kazuki regularly, but approaching her late thirties makes her increasingly conscious of time. Circumstances lead Kazuki to look after seventeen-year-old Saki. As Saki grows attached to him and jealous of Shoko, an incident prompts Kazuki to suggest ending his arrangement with Shoko. Hurt and disappointed, Shoko begins to respond to the affection of twenty-three-year-old Ichihara. She recognizes his sincerity, yet cannot completely forget Kazuki. Then Saki unexpectedly appears before her.

The regular edition includes the theme-song version of the trailer.