It¡¯s the tortured artist types you want to watch out for. Playwright Nagata (Kento Yamazaki), the protagonist of Isao Yukisada¡¯s ¡°Theatre: A Love Story,¡± seems to have been taking cues from Osamu Dazai, the godfather of nihilist literary posers. When he isn¡¯t poring over handwritten manuscripts in vintage coffee shops, he¡¯s either wasting time or getting wasted.
Never mind that evidence of his genius is in scant supply: He claims to be so thoroughly devoted to his art that he doesn¡¯t need to trouble himself with things like paying rent, or extending the smallest kindness to his inexplicably long-suffering girlfriend, Saki (Mayu Matsuoka).
Japanese cinema is rich with such protagonists ¡ª invariably male, seldom interesting. But it¡¯s fair to say that Nagata is a jerk, and your mileage with ¡°Theatre: A Love Story¡± is likely to vary depending on how insufferable you find him.
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