The Dawn of Love was great. Hirokawa created two very different gay characters. No broadcasting and no finding out, just two characters that are gay. One is a player because he likes to play and the other is a player because he’s afraid of what not playing will do to him. Both are comfortable in their own skin, but only one’s comfort extends to his heart. I found the use of self-reflection as a means to discover the merits of another very interesting. There are real elements of risk rather than risk due to ignorance or indecisiveness in the story line. At first glance it seems like a light-hearted romp, but there’s a great deal of depth.
Hirokawa’s manner of constructing character interactions gives you a front row seat to people inflicting pain on one another—purposely or not, due to ego or not—and reinforces the notion that the cause and the cure most often lies within you.
