Even Though I Don't Like It (2016)

Even Though I Don’t Like It has the rare confidence to treat female desire not as a tease or a punchline, but as the beating heart of a romantic drama—messy, contradictory, and painfully human. Director Kōta Yoshida keeps the mood intimate and slightly dreamlike, letting the fantasy-tinged atmosphere soften the edges while the performances, especially Rico Tamaki’s, make every hesitation and impulse feel lived-in rather than scripted. It’s less about plot mechanics than emotional gravity: the way attraction can be easy with the wrong person and impossibly complicated with the right one, even when you can’t quite explain why. Fair warning, it’s explicit and unblinking, so it won’t be for everyone—but if you’re open to a sensual, actor-driven film that actually engages with sexuality instead of exploiting it, this one lingers.

Even Though I Don’t Like It is aiming for a steamy, emotionally messy romance about desire, insecurity, and the self-sabotage that can happen in a love triangle. The problem is it often mistakes repetition for depth, circling the same beats without adding much insight, and some character choices feel more illogical than revealing. If you’re looking for a coherent, character-driven drama with believable motivations, this will likely test your patience—especially given how aggressively it leans on explicit sex and nudity to carry the mood. That said, if you’re specifically in the market for a raw, sensual atmosphere and don’t mind a thin story, you may find enough heat and melancholy to justify the runtime.