I am the Master of My Destiny

I've been waiting for months to finally watch Kenichi Matsuyama's indie film "Don't Laugh at my Romance" or "Sex is not a Laughing Matter". Its so hard to find because a. its a foreign/Japanese film and b. its an indie film. Anyway, the long wait is over.

I first watched Kenichi Matsuyama from the Death Note series where he had an iconic role as L. So my initial reaction was "L in sexy scenes?" Then I got a chance to Zeni Geba TV series where he is a heartless money loving boy, and there's the funny Kenichi ni Sexy, Voice Robo. So its a breath of fresh air for him to act dopey-in-love type but not the J-idol over romantic mushy roles.

The film is about a May-December affair of Mirume (Kenichi Matsuyama), a 19 year old college student who falls in love with his 20 years older teacher Yuri (Hiromi Nagasaku). Yuri is not your ordinary college teacher because she's funny and sexy thus she was able to subtly seduce his student. Seduction, adultery, lies, innocent love and more complications brought by sex was delivered in this film.

The film is light but sincere, from the title you might expect presence of sex, but it only features suggestive scenes - before and after the act. But its still for the mature audience - I'm not sure about the Death Note fans - because of its central theme, a forbidden affair. Overall, Don't Laugh at My Romance is an enjoyable film, superb acting from the leads, good execution of the scenes and a chance to watch Kenichi having a close to normal guy role (If you have seen his other movies, you know what I mean *wink).