A film review
The Japanese queer film My Beautiful Man Eternal starring Hagiwara Riku (Hira Kazunari) and Yagi Yusei (Kiyoi Sou) is a passionate adaptation of the novel He, Who is Beautiful (ηΎγγε½Ό) by Nagira Yuu that captures an innate look at inner emotions, insecurity, and personal strength.
Some things can’t be articulated in words. I think, as unique and even crazy as Hira and Kiyoi’s relationship can come across, that’s what makes them so beautiful. It’s like we are always watching them through Hira’s filtered viewfinder. No matter what happens in life or the direction we take, a photograph lasts. A memory is eternal. Love can feel crazy. It can be a beacon that saves.
Beneath it all, that’s what Kiyoi & Hira are to each other. A star no one understands but them. And that’s why it’s so hard to look away from the series and the film. Hira and Kiyoi are a unique photobook of symbolic moments and sometimes odd transitions and endings that feel like poetry conveying an abstract idea with a multitude of ways to look at it. Like when you go to someone’s home or through an attic, pick up a beautiful photo, study it, and go, “Who was this? What does it mean? Why do I feel so connected yet disconnected from it?” To catch that feeling in a moving picture really is something.
Out of all the reviews I’ve ever written, the one for My Beautiful Man Eternal will feel the most vague because that’s how Hira and Kiyoi make me feel. Beautifully vague. Like there’s no real need to explain myself or how I feel because there’s no reason to make anyone understand who I am. I am a star that only the people I allow to touch me will ever get close enough to.
That’s reason enough to fall in love with Hira, Kiyoi, and their sometimes strange, always beautiful, and remarkably untouchable romance. A world with them in it is enough.
A world where overconfidence and no confidence are the opposite sides of the same page waiting to be folded together.
For a film that is as hauntingly beautiful as a forgotten photo inside an equally forgotten box, check out My Beautiful Man Eternal now on the U-Next streaming app. International viewers, please stay tuned for viewing information.