Love never was and never will be logical. Your 20-year-old daughter rolls her eyes at May-December romances in the movies — until she gets engaged to a 50-year-old guy. And you will declaim loud and long against her choice, until you start dating a 20-year-old yourself. I am speaking in a general way, of course. I am certain that all of you reading this only fall in love with age-appropriate partners.

Still, certain pairings in films seem illogical and rub me the wrong way. One belongs to "Otoko no Issho (A Man's Life)," the latest in director Ryuichi Hiroki's long line of romantic dramas.

Based on Keiko Nishi's popular comic of the same title, the film pairs 27-year-old Nana Eikura, playing a stressed-out career woman on an extended break following her beloved grandmother's death, with 52-year-old Etsushi Toyokawa as the eccentric university professor the heroine ends up sharing grandma's house with.