Films commonly target one sex more than the other. Akira Kurosawa made them mainly for men and Yasujiro Ozu, mainly for women, but today both directors are regarded as masters by critics of both sexes, targeting be damned.
Some films, however, practically tell one sex not to bother because they just won't get it. "Sex and the City" is one notorious recent example. Ryuichi Hiroki's "Yomei Ikkagetsu no Hanayome" ("April Bride"), which is about a young woman diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, would seem to be another film that all but bars guys from the theater.
Based on a true story, first told in a TV news segment and later retold in a two-hour TV documentary, "Yomei," gives the tear ducts of its lead actors thorough workouts, particularly those of Eita, who plays the devoted boyfriend/fiance of the afflicted heroine. Guys who accompany their significant other to this film — and realize that they are unfeeling brutes compared to this exemplar, may wish they had scheduled root-canal work instead.
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