With the greatest sympathy, the director hides the unbearableness of life behind the camera, and shows us all the possible goodwill between people, just like the nice title: like a river of love. The film begins with two fixed shots that switch back and forth. First, the subjective shot of the unknown heroine: Akiko is facing the hustle and bustle in the bar, the table is empty, and the unease in her words is conveyed to us only by a voice from nowhere. Then, the camera cuts to Akiko who is talking to her boyfriend. She is alone, and the glass door behind her is the exit of the bar leading to the street. The plot has not yet unfolded, and only through the language of the camera, you can clearly feel her loneliness and helplessness in the vast sea of people, which sets the gray tone of the whole film. In the taxi to the unknown fate, she listened to every call record of her grandmother, her eyes moist. Through the car window, facing the night of the city, the bustling pedestrians and the lively neon shops, trying to find the old man who is missing her. However, whether you can find it or can't find it, you don't know which one is your real expectation. Maybe the expectations given by the person she cares about the most are always too good, making her lose the courage to face it. A well-mannered old man, who is also a man, whose life has been dulled by the departure of his wife and daughter, longs for a woman to accompany him for an imaginary romantic evening. But adult jokes are too vulgar for them, soup, rice and red wine are also not to the girl's liking. Sleeping in an embrace is the last tenderness she can give, and what the old man needs is obviously not physical comfort. A young and young female student and an accomplished old professor seem to have boundless longing for the future, or a comfortable and self-sufficient old age. Their relationship might be grandfather and granddaughter, or teacher and student, but it is the seemingly shameful sex trade that brings them together. The satisfaction of physical desires can still be exchanged for money, but spiritual comfort is often not available. Once it is obtained by luck, it will be like a treasure. For them, it was destined to be out of the ordinary, and one of the few exits. Akiko's boyfriend is the value concept of this society and the epitome of human nature. They appear to be affectionate and charitable, but they are often self-righteous and prejudiced. They occupy the moral high ground, draw a red line of right and wrong, and easily destroy everything outside the standard to satisfy their desire for control. In a sanctimonious society, the inside of the body is usually a spiritual shell. In the middle of the film, three people sit in a Volvo car, talking about life, school, work and even marriage. They try to maintain a peaceful situation above the deception, each with their own hearts and secrets, leading to an end that is bound to break. The director maintains a superficial calm with extreme restraint, leaving a lot of conflict blank. There are no complicated motives or unbearable memories here, and loneliness, lust, violence, and pornography are carefully concealed, leaving behind a little bit of the good stuff. Although these fragments are still illusions, at least we still have illusions to reminisce, and this is the last tenderness left to us.
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