Sing in Love – Movie Review & Ending Explained

Jin works as a substitute teacher at a high school. He has earned the respect of his students and peers. Based on his current performance, Jin is on track to secure a full-time position. Outside of his career, Jin and his wife, Hitomi, enjoy a blissful marriage. The young couple has no children.

One evening, Jin is on his way after work. He stops by the park to take a break. Suddenly, a man emerges from the shadows and attacks him. The unknown assailant overpowers Jin, subdues him, and forcibly removes his clothes. The predator sexually assaults Jin, who is powerless to fight back.

After the attack, Jin reports his rape to the police. Despite their promises to investigate the case, they could not find any leads. Three months later, the police still haven't made an arrest. Meanwhile, Jin tries to put aside the traumatic incident and move on. Jin hasn't told his wife what happened. Nonetheless, she is suspicious. Behind her back, he starts seeing a therapist and confides in the professional.

One day, a young man named Kai approaches Jin and reveals he is the abuser. Kai taunts his victim and laughs about the incident, calling himself a hunter. He attacks Jin, who falls unconscious. Jin wakes up and finds himself in an abandoned lot occupied by Kai's friends. Kai reveals to everyone what happened to Jin. He also threatens to hurt his wife.

A humiliated Jin tries confronting his nemesis, but Kai and his buddies fight back. The group overpowers the teacher. Kai provokes Jin further by going on stage and performing a rap about the sexual assault. Jin lashes out at him on stage. Yet, Kai's friends filmed the violent encounter. The footage leaks to the school, destroying the teacher's reputation. Jin goes on the warpath and threatens to get revenge on Kai.

Sing in Love stirs intense emotions in me, primarily shock, fury, outrage, and disgust. Early on, the protagonist's gruesomely depicted sexual assault horrified me. I was even more disturbed when his attacker returned and taunted him about the abuse. His vileness strained every moral fibre in my body. In addition to feeling uncomfortable, I was also baffled by the characters' behaviour. I couldn't understand why the victim and his aggressor interacted when they should've stayed the hell away from each other.

I hated Sing in Love after finishing it. Typically, I'd erase the awful experience from my mind and never touch the movie again. However, I force myself to rewatch it for the sake of this review. During the second viewing, I calm down without letting emotions cloud my judgment. As a result, I gain clarity over the film's narrative themes. While I still find the explicit scenes troubling, I recognize the director intends to provoke the audience. Sing in Love wants us to confront the harsh realities of sexual assault. The story is supposed to be ugly, unsettling, and upsetting.

Sing in Love explores the psychological torment of sexual assault through a dark, twisted lens. Beyond the physical injuries, the protagonist suffers from emotional scars that cause him to derail his life. He tries to stick by his old routine for a few months, but Kai's arrival triggers Jin's inner demons. The film conveys that returning to normalcy is impossible for some survivors, no matter how much they repress their trauma. Jin goes on a downward spiral, hitting different stages of agony. Sing in Love gives a raw examination of the victim's pain, from humiliation to helplessness.

The movie isn't easy to understand. Kai is an enigma and hides his thoughts most of the time. After you demystify Kai's perspective, it unlocks the central messages of the plot. The general gist is that you must hit rock bottom before recovery begins. Once you stop feeling ashamed of the trauma, you turn your victimhood into empowerment. While the movie's ideas are fascinating, its execution is clunky. It doesn't introduce the characters properly or clarify their motivations. The complicated story will perplex first-time viewers, yet rewatching the film feels mentally draining.

I classify Sing in Love as BL since there's same-sex intimacy in the film's second half. However, romance is far from my mind after all the brutal events earlier in the story. This depressing movie contains no sweet lovey-dovey moments. Although there are a few sexual encounters, they don't feel particularly enticing. I also think the couple's connection and bonding scenes are weak. Regardless, both leads are decent in their roles. Jin's actor (Yu Inaba) catches my eye. This earnest performer captures his character's shock, fear, and vulnerability, especially at the start.

Sing in Love strides towards a happy ending as the characters find solace from their trauma. Yet, the final scene thrusts them into a world of pain again. Ugh, I'm exhausted. The movie always does too much, from constant twists to nonstop drama. The narrative is overloaded with heavy storylines that muddle the messages it wants to convey. Deciphering the convoluted plot becomes a burden than a pleasure. Maybe some of the meaningful allegories elude me, but I no longer have the energy to dissect them. Sing in Love is a distressing film I don't plan to revisit ever again.