For all its many attractions as a place to live, Japan can be unforgiving for anyone who¡¯s perceived as different.
There¡¯s a phrase that comes up repeatedly during Hikaru Toda¡¯s ¡°Of Love & Law¡°: ¡°reading the air¡± (k¨±ki o yomu). It describes the unspoken way in which people are taught to assess a situation and adjust their behavior accordingly. Though it¡¯s meant to denote tact and consideration, what it really means is conforming ¡ª and for those who can¡¯t (or won¡¯t) do it, reading the air can be stifling.
This becomes clear over the course of Toda¡¯s documentary, which took home one of the main prizes at last year¡¯s Tokyo International Film Festival. ¡°Of Love & Law¡± depicts the fragile state of individual rights in contemporary Japan, as seen through the eyes of a pair of lawyers, Kazuyuki Minami and Masafumi Yoshida, who are themselves minorities: They are an openly gay couple.
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