Less a feminist film in the western sense than an attempt to get deep inside the feelings of young women in present-day Japan, Falling into the Evening is a first feature from the producer of Hirokazu Kore-eda's celebrated Maborosi, Naoe Gozu, who has chosen to work with a predominantly female crew. She describes her film as "a prayer for renewal - both for the central character and for the Japanese people as a whole".

Adapting a story by Kaori Ekuni (George Matsuoka's gay-triangle drama Twinkle was based on another of her books), the film centres on Rica (Tomoyo Harada), a young woman plunged into emotional hell when her long-term boyfriend Kengo suddenly announces that he's leaving her for another woman. The problems intensify when the 'other woman' in question, Hanako (Miho Kanno), turns up on Rica's doorstep expecting to move in. With unrequited passions flying in all directions, the inevitable happens: on a trip together to Hanako's hometown Kamakura, the two women bond and reach a new level of mutual understanding.

Formally composed, delicately paced and richly aestheticised, Gozu's film is by all accounts not a crowd-pleaser. Like Maborosi, though, it will no doubt reward patient and sympathetic viewers with a quietly devastating experience. Tony Rayns