ゲイ専用老人ホームで描かれるさまざまな愛

[From December Issue 2010]

La Maison de Himiko [House of Himiko] (Directed by INUDO Isshin)

Released in 2005, this film is something of a comedic-drama that’s set in a gay senior home. In it, director INUDO Isshin, who also oversaw the fairy tale, romantic film “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,” depicts various forms of love, including homosexual, heterosexual, married and parent-child love. Wearing ugly makeup and sporting freckles, popular actress SHIBASAKI Kou plays the daughter who was abandoned by her gay father.

Saori (Shibasaki Kou) is a clerk at a paint company, who contemplates turning to sex-work in order to repay her debts, when a young man named KISHIMOTO Haruhiko (ODAGIRI Joe) pays her a visit. He claims to be her gay father’s (YOSHIDA Teruo, a.k.a. “Himiko”) lover. She learns that her father, who ditched his family long ago, is suffering from terminal cancer, but she show’s no sympathy stating that “Whether that man’s got cancer and it’s terminal, doesn’t matter to me.”

Haruhiko then asks Saori if she’s interested in a part-time job. He offers her 30,000 yen a day to help out every Sunday at La Maison de Himiko, the gay seniors home that Himiko, her father, established. Tempted by the money, she visits the seaside establishment. Upon her arrival, she is shocked to find several odd people, including an elderly man wearing a dress and heavy makeup, who talks like a woman.

Saori is bewildered by being reunited with her father and feels her hatred for him grow even stronger. She reveals to Himiko that she is his daughter, and how she had to borrow money from relatives to pay for her mother’s operation and hospital stay, who eventually died of cancer. When he calmly says that he didn’t know, she yells at him, “Of course not. You are a total stranger!”

Saori keeps working at the home every Sunday, gradually accepting the gay residents who first disgusted her. She teaches the movements of a female anime character to Ruby, who wants to learn them to please his granddaughter. Wearing a Chinese dress, she also dances with Yamazaki who enjoys wearing women’s clothes. Then, all of a sudden, a company president who supports the home is arrested for tax evasion, putting the home’s future in serious jeopardy.

Before long, Saori becomes attracted to Haruhiko. He kisses her, but she knows that she cannot have a normal, romantic relationship with a gay man. While her father continues to weaken daily, she eventually confronts him about whether or not he ever missed her, or if he has any regrets about leaving her mother. “I won’t forgive you for what you did to Mom,” she says while glaring at Himiko, who murmurs in return, “I love you.”

Soon after, Saori quarrels with Haruhiko and the residents over a separate matter and quits her job. Immediately following her departure, Himiko dies. Then, one winter day several months later, the paint company where she works is asked by the home to paint over some graffiti on its wall. Saori accompanies the workers to the home, where the remaining residents all greet her with smiles. The film ends with a final shot of the message “WE WANT TO SEE SAORI” shown across the wall.

[2010年12月号掲載記事]

メゾン· ド· ヒミコ(犬堂一心 監督)

ゲイのための老人ホームを舞台にしたコメディードラマとして、2005年に公開された。ファンタジックな恋を描いた『ジョゼと虎と魚たち』の監督、犬堂一心が、同性愛や異性愛、夫婦愛や親子愛などさまざまな愛を描き出す。人気女優の柴咲コウがそばかすなどで不細工なメイクをほどこし、ゲイの父親に捨てられた娘を演じている。

塗装会社の事務員、沙織(柴咲コウ)は借金を返すために風俗で稼ごうかと迷っている。そこへ、岸本春彦(オダギリジョー)と名乗る若い男が現れる。彼は、かつて沙織と母を捨てたゲイの父・吉田照雄、通称「卑弥呼」の恋人だという。父が末期がんだと知らされるが、沙織は「あんな男、がんだろうが末期だろうが関係ない」と突き放す。

すると春彦は、突然沙織にアルバイトの話を持ちかける。卑弥呼が建てたゲイ専用の老人ホーム「メゾン・ド・ヒミコ」で毎週日曜日、1日3万円の給料で雑用係をしないかと。高給にひかれ、沙織は海辺に建つホームを訪ねる。だが厚化粧にワンピース姿で女性らしい言葉を使う老人男性などを目にして、沙織はショックを受ける。

父との再会で、沙織は戸惑い、父への憎しみが増すのを感じる。沙織は、自分が卑弥呼の娘であることと、がんで死んだ母の入院費用や手術代を親戚から借りたことを、卑弥呼本人に告げる。「初耳だわ」と冷静に答える父に、沙織は「当たり前でしょ。あんたなんか赤の他人なんだから!」とどなりつける。

日曜日ごとにホームに通うようになった沙織は、大嫌いだったゲイたちに少しずつ心を開いていく。孫娘のために少女アニメのキャラクターの振り付けを覚えたいというルビーに指導し、女装趣味の山崎とは一緒にチャイナドレスを着て踊る。そんな中、ホームを援助していた社長が脱税容疑で逮捕され、ホームの運営が危なくなる。

やがて沙織は、春彦にひかれる。春彦からキスされるが、ゲイである春彦とは、普通の恋人関係にはなれなかった。日に日に弱っていく父に、ある日、沙織は娘に会えずに寂しかったことや母を捨てたことへの後悔はないのか、と問いつめる。「あんたのこと、ママのために許さない」とにらむ沙織に、卑弥呼は「あなたが好きよ」とつぶやく。

そんな矢先、あることで沙織は春彦やホームの人たちと口論になり、ホームでの仕事を辞めてしまう。その直後、卑弥呼は息をひきとる。数ヵ月後の冬のある日、沙織の勤める塗装会社に、壁の落書きを消してほしいと、ホームから依頼がくる。作業員たちに同行した沙織をホームの人たちは笑顔で迎え入れる。そして、壁に書かれた「サオリに会いたい」の文字が映され、映画は終わる。

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