Return to Fantastic Fest: Kenichi Ugana’s Love Will Tear Us Apart (2023)
- Travis Brown
- 9 hours ago
- 2 min read
As we look ahead to Fantastic Fest 2025, it’s worth revisiting the work of directors returning to Austin this year. One of them is Kenichi Ugana, a filmmaker whose name guarantees both unpredictability and energy. While we still don’t know which of his latest projects will screen this September, we can look back at his 2023 slasher Love Will Tear Us Apart, which made the rounds at Grimmfest and other international festivals before quietly landing on streaming.
Ugana is no stranger to controlled chaos—his Visitors: The Complete Edition remains one of the most unhinged zombie–alien–punk hybrids ever put on screen. But Love Will Tear Us Apart, co-written with Hirobumi Watanabe, proves he isn’t content to stay in one lane. Like many of his contemporaries in Japanese cinema, Ugana shifts effortlessly between genres, and here he delivers a curious hybrid of coming-of-age drama, J-pop melodrama, and old-school slasher carnage.
The story follows Wakaba (Sayu Kubota), who grows up obsessed with a J-pop band and later finds herself living the dream as both a fan and a fellow musician. But when tragedy strikes and the band is mysteriously wiped out, Wakaba and a close friend are left behind to face a masked, steampunk-inspired killer armed with a grotesque arsenal of weapons—chainsaws, machetes, and more. As bodies pile up, Wakaba’s past and the killer’s secret history intertwine in unsettling ways.
It’s a film bursting with ideas—sometimes too many. The strongest moments come late, when Ugana unleashes the gore-soaked chaos we know he can deliver, but the buildup meanders through uneven pacing and narrative detours. Still, even at its messiest, Love Will Tear Us Apart reflects a filmmaker unafraid to blend styles and challenge expectations.
Ultimately, I landed on 2.5 out of 5. Not because Ugana failed, but because he reached further than the film could hold. And that ambition is exactly why his return to Fantastic Fest has me excited. Whatever he brings to the table this year—whether it’s horror, romance, or something in between—you can bet it won’t be ordinary.
📺 Love Will Tear Us Apart is currently streaming free on Tubi and available on Amazon Prime. Be careful not to confuse it with the Korean film of the same name.