Margaret finds herself in the glittering labyrinth of Tokyo by night and as a respected English teacher of a Japanese flight attendant academy by day. With little life direction, She searches for meaning with fellow ex-pat Ines in a Japanese dive bar, drinking to remember to forget and losing herself in love hotel encounters with men who satisfy a fleeting craving. When she crosses paths with Kazu, a dashing yakuza, she falls in love with him despite the danger and tradition ... (Full plot summary below)
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Margaret finds herself in the glittering labyrinth of Tokyo by night and as a respected English teacher of a Japanese flight attendant academy by day. With little life direction, She searches for meaning with fellow ex-pat Ines in a Japanese dive bar, drinking to remember to forget and losing herself in love hotel encounters with men who satisfy a fleeting craving. When she crosses paths with Kazu, a dashing yakuza, she falls in love with him despite the danger and tradition that hinders their chances of being together. We follow her through the dark and light of love and what it means to find oneself abroad with a youthful abandon.
Leave your thoughts about Lost Girls & Love Hotels.
| Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperThis is one of the better intimate dramas of the year. |
| The PlaylistCharles BarfieldIf not for the performance of Daddario, Lost Girls & Love Hotels could have been a disaster. |
| The GuardianPeter BradshawThe film isn’t perfect, and there is a touch of orientalism about the obsessive-affair-with-Japanese-man trope (which surfaced also in Wash Westmoreland’s The Earthquake Bird in 2019). But there is also something well controlled in the movie as it maintains its cool, even pace and Alexandra Daddario’s performance as the vulnerable, secretive yet emotionally open Margaret is smart. |
| ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOther films have told similar stories with greater power. Director William Olsson appears unwilling to fully commit to the darkness that a movie of this sort would need to embrace to be both ephemerally disturbing (which it is) and memorable (which it isn’t). |
| VarietyDennis HarveyWilliam Olsson’s film works as an atmospheric mood piece and sometime erotic drama. It’s less successful as a character study. |
| RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiLost Girls and Love Hotels is too vapid to work as a psychological drama, too silly to work as a passionate romance, and too tepid to work as a sexy guilty pleasure. |
| User ReviewperliAn existentialist erotic thriller with a romantic whiff, but eroticism is purely narrartive and atmospheric with no open sexual scenes, meaning that sexual encounters that are boldly initated by the female heroine, are mostly indicated by the story and cut off or used for dialogue (yes, there are scenes with naked bodies and lovemaking, but very discreet with very little naked skin). And in the story, there is no real threat to the lead and no dynamic action in a sense of thriller genre, except for the existential angst of the "lost" heroine (lost girls from the title) and for the fact that at the end we realize that her lover is a yakuza, because we notice that his little finger was freshly cut. So people who expect hot action movie with dazzling female lead will be disappointed. And there is a bare minimum of a story, indicating a kind of existential emptiness of the alienated life of a disconnected foreigner in Tokyo's urban sprawl. But it's never-the-less a fine little movie with interesting acting by Alexandra Daddario who develops a kind of expressive charismatic presence in the movie without much talking that unexpectedly shows real acting talent. It seems that the movie was inspired by the films like In the mood for love and Lost in translation, although storywise far less articulated. |
| User ReviewJLuis_001Fifty Shades of Tokyo. The movie itself isn't nearly as terrible as the one I mentioned, but being atmospheric in eroticism doesn't make you interesting either. And is that when your story is about escaping your own demons through casualFifty Shades of Tokyo. The movie itself isn't nearly as terrible as the one I mentioned, but being atmospheric in eroticism doesn't make you interesting either. And is that when your story is about escaping your own demons through casual sex. You need a good narrative so that you can feel some kind of sympathy for the main character. Otherwise is just a shallow character jumping from bed to bed. And sorely this movie fails because it feels hollow most of the time and also because the main actress; Alexandra Daddario, is unable to make it feel credible. |
| User Reviewbfoore90Daddario is either really bad at picking projects or she needs a new agent. Either way, this film wasn't much to write home about. |
| User ReviewQ8MarrongGlaceThis is one of the worst Alexandra Daddario's movies Its so bad that you might skip or skim just to see what's next I am sure most viewer watch it just because Alex in it but what a waste I really can't believe how some actress's are accepting roles to get naked for some extra bucks without considering how that movie would reflect on their own resumé I feel sorry for her and her bad choice Expand |
