very good but painful film〜 appears to me a classic story of a man unable to love himself and therefore unable to be loved by others、protecting himself from vulnerability by pushing them away and leaving emotional havoc behind： I think especially with the women he so easily attracts trying to sustain the outer image of a conventional straight relationship which is false to his (maybe unconscious) real self which Imagase begins to pull to the surface。yet it seems Imasage ultimately fails too。 I detect irony comparing Otomo's relationship to Imagase at the start and the end of this film as it seems at the end Otomo needs Imagase as well as the other way round where before Imagase alone pursues Otomo： finally we are left with images where Imagase experiences the pain of real love but Otomo is left literally with an empty room reduced to fantasy ーusing an ashtray of Imagase to evoke Imagase but without the cigarette ends that would show Imagase is actually there himself