Americans have no feel for the trans community. We’re not alone and it doesn’t describe all of us … however, no people so accepting of difference would possibly seek to make a king out of Donald Trump. That comes from a deep fear/hatred of the other and it describes anybody unwilling to advance universal health care.
Today’s film is like an experiment in social science: take two disparate malcontents, throw them together in the same room, lock the door, hide the key, and take notes. Subject #1 is Nagisa (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), a trans woman living on her own in Tokyo. She grew up a man; now she wears a tutu on stage in an after hours party club as a Midnight Swan. The film isn’t explicit as to whether sex is part of her working life…but it’s hard to see how it’s not. Tokyo isn’t cheap and there can’t be much money in part-time nightclub window dressing. OTOH, Nagisa seems to loathe all people who aren’t in her circle; it’s hard to see her condescending to the prostitution dance.
Subject #2 is Ichika (Misaki Hattori). High school loner Ichika is a tornado in a bottle and a grand master of the understated pout. She’s all quiet and reserved and shy until you piss her off. And then, get this: her go to move is throwing a chair at a jerk. I love that. I wish it were standard practice for every slimy guy move. Like, say, every time you told an off-color joke or made an unsolicited sexual advance, the nearest woman could legally and without fear of retribution or persecution, just up and throw a chair at you. There would be no need for the #MeToo movement. Offending men would learn in quite a hurry that actions have consequences. I’m afraid the chair thing is about as delightful as Ichika gets, however, and –lemme tell ya- her sunny 
personality doesn’t exactly warm any faster when she’s sent –by default- to live with Aunt (nee Uncle) Nagisa.
Ah … this is just a buddy pic, isn’t it? Yet, not quite chained together, are we? This is less The Defiant Ones and more The Odd Couple. She’s prickly, she’s prickly. Good luck finding consensus. Huh, Ichika likes ballet … Nagisa does a little ballet on stage. Think there’s something there? Nah.
Midnight Swan does indeed go in the direction you expect it to go … but that isn’t a bad thing. Usually a film will only have a maximum of one curmudgeon; there’s generally not space for two. Midnight Swan, however, gave us curmudgeons as both leads and expected us to root for them, and damned if that didn’t happen. Perhaps they recognized their ugliness in one another. Perhaps they found kindred spirits. Perhaps they simply realized the futility of fighting with the only other available option for human companionship. For whatever reason, I was very fond of this film and enjoyed both leads. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go throw a chair at a guy.
When actions veer into the gray
This girl likes to make weasels pay
Yet dance is her thing
Which prompts wondering
Have I ever seen angry ballet?
Not Rated –but this film requires a certain amount of maturity of its audience, 124 Minutes
Director: Eiji Uchida
Writer: Eiji Uchida
Genre: Buddy pic
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: LGBTQ, I would guess
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: MAGA
