Platonic Sex (2001)

Based on a true story this is a standard—unfortunately—tale of a teen who's raped, blamed for it, abused and disowned by her family and then enters the sex industry. There's a few too many "You only perceive what's important to you when it's gone" dialog moments, but I enjoyed the sad and dreamlike, as opposed to angry or exploitive, tone of the film. Three good performances included: Jo Odagiri is solid and sweet as the good guy. (I've seen a handful of his films and this is my favorite Jo performance); Hiroshi Abe brings humor and strange insights as a flamboyant 'benefactor' and keeps the film from ever becoming too sappy; and Saki Kagami in the lead role, with baby fat in her cheeks, plays naive but smart through dumb faith (in something). She seems like her innocence might be unmasked at any moment but it never quite is. At times she seems creepily too young to be playing a role like this but never really slides off the edge. She gets props from me. PLATONIC SEX is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination. There's really nothing new and some of the writing is a little too precious, but I give it a marginal rent-not-buy recommendation because, by not attempting too much it gives itself a better chance of succeeding. And I think it does with the help of three above average performances—two by a couple pros and one from a newcomer.