The pangs of unrequited love are a familiar staple in high-school movies, but it's not often that they involve an altercation with a flying saucer. In his lopsided debut feature, "Saimon & Tada Takashi," writer-director Manabu Oda mixes sensitive teen drama with surreal humor and low-budget sci-fi schlock. By the end of the film's 83-minute runtime, the fact that it revolves around a gay romance feels almost incidental.
Saimon (newcomer Itsuki Sakamoto) is in his final year at high school, and still figuring out how to tell best friend Takashi (Kenta Suga) that he's in love with him. Takashi, for his part, just wants to get a girlfriend before he graduates and then has to work at his father's auto repair shop.
"This is my last chance!" he wails. Too bad that the school they attend only has a handful of female students, none of whom seem to share Saimon's appreciation for his friend's garrulous charms and acoustic guitar playing.