Watashi wo Daite Soshite Kisu Shite (1992)
Directed by Junya Sato
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Synopsis by Jonathan Crow
Junya Sato directed this tearjerking melodrama, touted as the first film in Japan about AIDS. The film opens with young, attractive travel agent Keiko Aida (Yoko Minamino) learning that she has contracted HIV. Her plans for the future utterly wrecked, she retreats into deep depression. A journalist (Kaho Minami) looking to write an article on AIDS approaches Keiko, but she spurns her advances. As in most of the world, having AIDS in Japan is an unpardonable shame. Driven crazy from loneliness, she allows herself to be picked up in a park by a rugged guy named Akira (Hidekazu Arai). Not knowing of her ailment, he takes her to a hotel where they make love. Having fallen for her rugged lover, Keiko reveals the true nature of her condition. Though he promptly dumps her, he returns to Keiko after learning that he tested negative and after learning that she is pregnant with his child.