Fighting Friends is a messy, honest look at how roommates fall apart

Is it worth your time?

If you like movies that feel like watching people through a dusty window, then yes. It is for anyone who has ever had a roommate they eventually wanted to punch in the face. 🥊

If you need big explosions or a fast plot, you will probably hate this. It moves slow, like a Sunday afternoon when you have nothing to do.

The whole thing starts in this incredibly cramped room. It’s the kind of place where you can practically smell the dirty laundry through the screen.

Atsushi Watanabe and Ikkō Ōkuni play the two friends, and they have this great rhythm. They move around each other in that tiny space without even thinking about it.

It reminded me of the domestic stuff in Pass the Dumplings, where the setting is basically a character. You can tell these guys have lived together for way too long. 🏚️

Then there is the car accident. It’s a bit awkwardly filmed, honestly.

The car looks like it’s barely moving, but suddenly this woman is hurt. They rescue her and bring her back to their dump of an apartment.

This is where everything goes sideways. The moment she wakes up, the guys stop being brothers and start being total idiots.

There is a scene where they both try to fix their hair in a tiny, cracked mirror at the same time. It’s painfully funny because we've all been that desperate to look good.

The woman, played by Tomoko Naniwa, mostly just looks confused. I don't blame her, these two are acting like they’ve never seen a girl before.

One of them tries to act all tough and the other tries to be the sensitive one. It’s so transparent and silly.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Fighting Friends (1929) through its definitive frames.

The movie gets a bit repetitive in the middle. They keep doing the same "I’m better than you" routine over and over again.

It’s a bit like the tension in The Wrecker but without the massive scale. Just two guys in a room getting mad about a bowl of rice.

I noticed this one shot that lingers on a tea pot for way too long. I think the camera man might have fallen asleep or something. ☕

But then there are these small, beautiful moments. Like when they share a cigarette and you can see they still love each other, even if they’re fighting.

The writer, Kōgo Noda, really gets how men communicate by not saying anything at all. It’s all in the way they shove a plate across the table.

I did find the ending to be a bit of a letdown. It just kind of... stops? 🛑

Like the film ran out of money or they just decided everyone had enough. It doesn't wrap things up in a neat little bow, which I guess is more like real life.

There’s a strange bit where a neighbor walks in and just stares at them for ten seconds. No dialogue, no purpose, just staring. It made me laugh out loud for the wrong reasons.

The acting is very physical, as you'd expect from 1929. Watanabe has these big, expressive eyes that make him look like a sad puppy half the time.

It isn't a masterpiece, but it’s human. It feels like someone took notes on their own bad roommates and made a movie out of it.

Sometimes the simplest stories are the ones that stick with you. Even if the car crash looked like a toy hitting a wall. 🚗

Go watch it if you want to see a friendship dissolve over a girl and some bad tea. It’s worth the hour or so of your life.