Nanae: Either my husband dies, or I die.
Rei: He's the one who should die, not you.
Nanae: In that case, will you kill him for me?
Rei: He's the one who should die, not you.
Nanae: In that case, will you kill him for me?
Ride or Die (Japanese title: Kanojo) is a 2021 Netflix film adaptation of the manga Gunjo by Ching Nakamura. It was directed by Ryuichi Hiroki from a screenplay by Nami Sakkawa, and stars Kiko Mizuhara and Honami Sato in the lead roles.
29 year old Rei Nagasawa is a successful plastic surgeon with a beautiful girlfriend at home, even though her own family doesn't know she's gay. But her life is upended when she receives a phone call from Nanae Shinoda, a woman she's been in love with for nearly fifteen years. The two reconnect after a decade apart, but events quickly spiral into a perfect storm of spousal abuse, murder, and life on the run.
Make no mistake, this is not a pleasant film, as it makes no attempt to avoid depictions of domestic abuse, homophobia, or the borderline toxic nature of the relationship between the two main characters. As with the original manga, Ride or Die is certainly not for everyone, but if you're looking for a different sort of yuri, it is that.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parent: Nanae's father beat her mother, and after she left, he started beating Nanae, which was part of the reason she married so young (and inadvertently ended up trading one abuser for another).
- Adaptation Distillation: The manga is quite a bit more violent and mean-spirited; The Brunette's (Nanae in the film) husband abuses her so badly she has a miscarriage, and she is much more coldly manipulative toward The Blonde (Rei in the film).
- Adaptation Dye-Job: The character Rei is based on from the manga is blonde. Here, Rei has dyed red hair.
- All Lesbians Want Kids: Averted; Mika apologizes to her mother for not being able to give her grandchildren, which would seem to indicate she doesn't want to have any.
- Asshole Victim: Kotaro Shinoda is this. Not only does he beat his wife (and is implied to have done so since very early in their marriage), but he doesn't think anything of having an affair on his and his wife's own bed.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: It's made clear from the beginning that Rei has always been in love with Nanae, but Nanae takes much longer to work out her feelings, only realizing she loves Rei near the end of the film.
- Black Bra and Panties: Rei is wearing these when she goes to bed with Kotaro.
- Bittersweet Ending: Rei arranges to turn herself in for Kotaro's murder, but Nanae promises to wait for her instead of committing suicide.
- Boyish Short Hair: Masato's wife Yu wears her hair like this, probably because she's got three kids and one more on the way.
- Broken Bird: Nanae begins the film as one; she grew up poor, lost a potentially life-changing athletic scholarship, has been physically abused by men since she was a teenager (her father and later her husband) and been ground down to the point that even after Rei kills her abusive husband, she's still contemplating suicide. Rei becomes one; she abandons her life as a successful plastic surgeon with a loving family and girlfriend to go on the run with the straight woman she's loved for years after the two conspire to kill her abusive husband.
- Can Always Spot a Cop: Everyone in the diner where Rei and Nanae were eating realizes the two men in suits are police the moment they walk through the door.
- Chronic Evidence Retention Syndrome: Rei and Nanae don't put much planning into killing Kotaro, which leads to this:
- Rei knows she was caught on camera with Kotaro, and that she left her fingerprints in the apartment.
- Nanae takes off her wedding ring and leaves it at the hospital where her comatose father is a patient.
- Rei & Nanae openly discuss several details of Kotaro's murder while ordering fast food, seemingly unaware that the restaurant has both audio and video feeds.
- Cure Your Gays: Rei's mother refused to accept her being a lesbian, so when the older woman was dying, Rei asked a male friend to pretend to be her boyfriend, with her mother glad she had been "cured of your homosexuality". This is why Rei is still so hesitant to come out to her family (though it turns out her brother and sister-in-law had guessed).
- Domestic Abuse: Nanae's husband physically abuses her for trivial things (such as coming home a few minutes late).
- Dumbass Has a Point: Masato, Rei's brother, can't understand why she killed a man (although it doesn't help that she won't tell him why).
- Fan Disservice: When reuniting with Rei, Nanae takes off her clothes to reveal myriad bruises on her legs, abdomen, breasts, and arms. When Rei later takes a shower to wash Kotaro's blood off, it's shown that she sustained two gashes (on her right bicep and above her right breast) from falling through a glass table when Kotaro attempted to fight her off. Additionally, both of the straight sex scenes are more uncomfortable than erotic.
- Flashback B-Plot: One early scene has a immediately post-high school Nanae repaying Rei 3 million yen; this is later revealed to be reimbursement for Rei covering her tuition. Similarly, another scene has Nanae refer to her marriage by saying that she decided if she was going to "sell my body to men", she might as well get the highest price; this turns out to have been part of the high school conversation from above, as Rei made the point that if Nanae intended to do things she was uncomfortable with for money, why shouldn't she do them for Rei?
- The Gadfly: Nanae definitely has shades of this. During Rei's tearful breakdown in the shower (after realizing that her life as she knew it is over), Nanae off-handedly mentions that it would have been easier if Rei and Kotaro had killed each other. When the two are later briefly staying at Nanae's childhood home, Nanae, incredulous that nothing she's said has made Rei truly angry, claims she called the police and teases Rei about taking the blame. This backfires spectacularly, as Rei finally snaps and hits her, angrily yelling "You could've at least let me fuck you first!" Turns out Nanae was just trying to provoke any reaction, and the person at the door is a sushi delivery man.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Played with. Nanae and Rei have sex toward the end of the movie, and while it is far more intimate and loving than either of the straight sex scenes, it remains a little off-putting because Nanae's extensive bruises are still visible even in the low light.
- Heel Realization: Rei has one after she hits Nanae for claiming she called the police; Nanae in turn has one for realizing she'd pushed Rei too far.
- Hide Your Lesbians: Played straight and averted. Rei is a closeted lesbian who hasn't come out to her family for fear of hurting them. Her girlfriend Mika is out, and her parents have accepted her sexuality (though her mom is annoyed that Rei has never introduced Mika to her family). Rei later learns her brother Masato and sister-in-law Yu had figured out she was gay a long time ago, but hadn't told anyone else.
- Hot Pursuit: Played with. Rei and Nanae are forced to abandon Nanae's car when a traffic cop gets suspicious, and they steal a moped to get away from him, since he only has a bicycle.
- If It's You, It's Okay: This seems to be how the previously straight Nanae reconciles falling in love and having sex with Rei.
- Incompatible Orientation: Rei, a lesbian, has been in love for years with Nanae, who is straight.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Rei stabs Kotaro in the neck with a scalpel while they're having sex. When that doesn't do the job quickly enough, she slashes his throat with a broken wine glass.
- Ironic Echo: One flashback has the high school-age Rei's housekeeper, who was also gay, advising that she forget her crush on Nanae, since "sooner or later, she'll be sucking some guy's...you know." In the present (which is "later"), Rei herself ends up performing fellatio on Kotaro when she seduces him.
- Love Confession: Nanae finally admits to Rei that she loves her after they have sex.
- Moment Killer: Literally right after they have sex, Nanae asks Rei if Rei could kill her. Rei admits she could if that's what Nanae really wants, but would then have no reason to keep living. Nanae then turns this around by revealing she's still suicidal, but would kill Rei first so she wouldn't experience the pain of Nanae's death. In the end, she can't go through with it.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Rei agrees to cover Nanae's tuition, she makes it a bargain: if Nanae can't pay her back within five years, Rei gets to have sex with her. When Nanae seems to ignore this, Rei angrily says that if she really doesn't want that, she should "get married to some rich guy", which is precisely what happens.
- No Name Given: In Gunjo, the two main characters were only called The Brunette and The Blonde. Here their names are Nanae Shinoda (The Brunette) and Rei Nagasawa (The Blonde, who is a redhead in the film)
- "Not So Different" Remark: When Masato is struggling to understand why Rei committed murder, his wife Yu tells him that she could kill anyone if it was a choice between that person or Masato and their kids.
- Old Cop, Young Cop: Like most depictions of Japanese police detectives, the two working Kotaro's murder are this. The older one looks to be in his forties, while the younger one is probably in his late twenties.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Rei is horrified when she sees the extensive bruises Nanae's husband has left on her, and it doesn't take much convincing from there for her to kill him.
- Shower of Angst: After killing Kotaro, Rei takes a shower to wash his blood off, and ends up breaking down when she realizes what she's done.
- Stereotype Flip: Rei, who grew up wealthy, doesn't like sushi. Nanae, who grew up poor, loves it.
- Technical Virgin: Rei is a lesbian, and all of her relationships have been with women. When executing her plan to kill Nanae's husband, she ends up briefly having straight sex with him before committing the murder, and later snarks that she's finally lost her "virginity".
- Tempting Fate: The small town cabbie who drives Rei and Nanae to the train station does this twice. After Rei sarcastically confesses they're on the run for murder, he tells them his recent story, which involves abusing his family. When he later brings them food, he jokingly asks if they really killed someone, which earns him a Death Glare from Rei.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Of a sort. Nanae was a track star in high school, while Rei was an artist.
- When She Smiles: Late in the film it's revealed that Nanae and Rei met in art class, and Rei's attraction to her was sparked by Nanae removing her glasses and smiling.
