"Okoge" is Japanese slang for women who associate with gay men, taken from the words "okama," a pot in which rice is cooked, and "okoge," which is the rice that sticks to the sides of the pot.
The new film "Okoge" is about Sayoko (Misa Shimizu), a wounded woman who is looking for friendship without strings and finds it with a pair of gay men she meets on a gay beach.
Goh (Takehiro Murata) and his lover Tochi (Takeo Nakahara) are discreet in their relationship, partly because Tochi's wife is threatening to "out" him and ruin his career, and partly because gay life is so frowned upon by Japanese society that they are constantly put upon by discrimination.
Eventually, Goh and Tochi are forced to break off the relationship, and tragedy follows for Sayoko when she tries to act as a go-between for Goh and a new lover. Some years later, however, all three are brought back together, getting a second chance at life.
This thin plot outline doesn't really do justice to "Okoge," which is an ambitious treatise on gay life in Tokyo and also comments on the continuing subservience of women in Japanese culture.
Unfortunately, writer-director Takehiro Nakajima gets a bit preachy in places, which tends to undermine his intentions. He will also likely alienate "straight" audiences with the graphic gay sex scenes here, which are really not necessary.
Nakajima's strength is in creating compelling, well-defined characters. Too bad the melodrama here doesn't better serve them.
Though unrated, "Okoge" would easily receive an R for sex, nudity, vulgarity and some violence.