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Back to list Between Two Lovers (aka What’s Love Got to Do with It?)

Director’s Profile

Director and screenwriter Hirose Nanako was born in Kanagawa prefecture in 1987, graduated from Musashino Art University, and joined Bunbuku production company in 2011. She made her directorial debut with His Lost Name (2018), the story of a young man with a secret, and his pseudo-father-son relationship with the owner of a carpentry shop. The film premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2018, was awarded Special Mention at Tokyo FILMeX 2018, and won the New Director Grand Prix at Takasaki Film Festival 2019. In December of the same year, she released Book-Paper-Scissors (2019), a documentary film about Kikuchi Nobuyoshi, a book cover craftsman. She also directed episodes 3 and 5 of TV series Junichi (2019), based on a novel by Inoue Areno, and was one of the main directors of Soredemo Ai-wo Chikaimasuka? (2021), a TV adaptation of the manga series by Hagiwara Keiku.

Synopsis

Uta, a writer of children′s stories who hates children, and her husband, Morio, are in their third year of marriage. When her husband Morio, who has long wanted children, finally insists that it is time to start a family, Uta consults her lover, Junna, who is an editor. Junna reveals her displeasure. She is in the process of testing her fertility through artificial insemination, using sperm from a sperm bank. Cornered, Uta comes out to Morio, and takes a gamble. She plans to bring Morio and Junna together and gradually get them used to each other.
At first, Morio and Junna constantly fight and compete, but gradually they begin to warm to one another. After much discussion, the three of them vow to raise a child together. They try many times to conceive using the syringe method. Finally, Junna′s wish comes true and she gives birth to a child.
The three begin to live together with the child, but Uta, who is neither mother nor father, questions the meaning of her own existence and begins to feel anxious and helpless. In contrast, Morio and Junna grow closer and closer, becoming more and more convinced of their love for their child. They are like a real couple.
Uta was lonely. Uta did not really want a child, she just wanted their love. To end her agony, Uta decides to love her unborn child in order to repair their love.

Achievements

2026 Busan International Film Festival - Competition

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