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Bye Bye Love (Baibai rabu バイバイ・ラブ) + introduction by Ren Scateni (18*)

Queer 70s

,Cinema 3
A person's head wrapped in tape measures, bathed in green light

A wild and violent road trip with a genderqueer partnership at its centre, Isao Fujisawa’s breathtaking and radical movie was thought lost until a negative was unearthed in 2018.

An exhilarating rush from start to finish, Bye Bye Love begins with a frenzied anti-‘meet cute’. A young woman, referred to as ‘Giko’ (Miyabi Ichijo) flees the cops and barges into a rebellious macho guy, ‘Utamaro’ (Ren Tamura) whom she implores for help. Soon, a policeman is dead, and the pair spend the rest of their relationship on the run. Giko is revealed to be gender fluid and the two forge a queer partnership in crime.

While the depiction of Giko’s identity is inevitably of its time, the character, unforgettably played by Ichijo, is sympathetic and has a lot of agency in the film. Bye Bye Love captures the nihilistic zeitgeist, (a character called Nixon is gunned down soon after entering the story), looking back on the broken promises of the 1960s. It’s a thrilling, provocative film, infused with the energy of early Godard.

Tagged with: Cinema Queer 70s

In Japanese with English subtitles

Please note this film contains outdated representation of a queer character

Film information
  • Release year   1974
  • Country   Japan
  • Director   Isao Fujisawa
  • Runtime   1hr 25 min
‘Playful, anarchic, and unusually prescient, Bye Bye Love feels like a transmission from a gender-queer future that had yet to be defined‘
Luke Goodsell, Metrograph Journal

Ren Scateni is a film curator and writer, whose practice embraces experimental and artists' films exploring the intersections of political, disruptive, and liminal identities. His writing appeared in ArtReview, Hyperallegic, and Sight and Sound among others.

Cinema 3

Location
Barbican Cinema 2 & 3 are located on Beech Street, a short walk from the Barbican’s Silk Street entrance. From Silk Street, you’ll see a zebra crossing that will take you across the road to the venue. 

Address
Beech Street
London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.