BL Metamorphosis

Seventeen-year-old Urara (ASHIDA Mana) has a dull high school life. Her only pastime and passion is reading Boy’s Love (BL) manga, which she keeps a secret. Working part-time at a book shop, she one day meets an elderly woman, Yuki (MIYAMOTO Nobuko). Yuki has lost her husband and has been living alone ever since. Not knowing what BL is, she unwittingly buys a copy of a BL manga because of its pretty cover. First embarrassed but then gradually fascinated by what she finds inside, Yuki heads back to the bookstore to buy the next volume. Having BL as their common interest, Urara kindly offers to help Yuki dive into the rabbit hole. The two soon forget their fifty-eight year age difference and form an unexpected friendship along the way.

A heart-warming film about two lonely women with a huge age gap between them and from cultural backgrounds, who come together to find friendship and a new sense of self. Released in 2022, the film received many positive responses, especially from the BL fandom – a distinctive manga genre which has a large female readership in Japan.