Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Love the Hard Way." Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna star in this drama about a thief who falls for a curious, beautiful young woman. As their intimacy grows, a slick cop (Pam Greer) is closing in.
As told through frank and unself-conscious testimonies from its main subject, a documentary which takes a look at three transvestite employees of the New Marilyn club in Tokyo: Tatsu, Gaish and Kazuki who coin themselves as "annabe"--women who live as men and have girlfriends, although they usually don't identify as lesbians. Tatsu lives with his girlfriend, Tomoe. Gaish is the tough-talking heartbreaker who has a string of girlfriends. And Kazuki lives with Kumii a male transexual and semi-famous nightclub dancer in Tokyo. Alternating interviews with these three main players and their partners, along with sequences shot in the ritzy club, this documentary shows a spectrum of a genuinely alternative sex--women who dress, live and want to be accepted as men and on whom the simple label of "lesbian" doesn't fit comfortably.