IS, Episode 3

The Actors

Rape-Huggist: Inoue Masahiro♂
Rape-Huggee: Fukada Saki♀♂

The Context
This dorama centres around Fukuda Saki's character who is an intersexual - as in s/he has no defined gender. At first I thought this would be a very serious dorama about a very difficult topic -- especially in Japan. However, it quickly devolved into pretty much every crappy dorama full of bad acting, stilted dialogue, predctable plot-twists and the occasional rape-hug. In this scene - Fukuda's character (who feels like a boy but has been forced to go to her school as a girl) is at a boy's house. They had gone to a football (soccer) match and afterwards went to his house to watch more football videos. Until now they had been hanging out as friends, but after an awkward topic was breached, the camera zooms into his face. Yes, a rape-hug was inevitable. 

The Result
As you see in the GIF above, she/he did not accept the rape-hug, and immediately after runs away. He runs after her (probably not the most non-rapey option) and confronts her. They then agree it was a mistake and decide to simply be friends. 

The Depiction

The sequence begins with a very creepy slowmotion zoom-in shot of his face as he decides to rape-hug her/him from behind while s/he is looking through the box of VHS's. The impact is shown a couple of times from different angles in slow motion with fade-cuts, along with closeups of both their faces. It is a relatively long drawn-out sequence. Then, the slowmotion stops and contrasts with the sudden burst out of the rape-grapple.

Awkwardometor ☆☆☆☆
I hesitate to award this a full 5-stars based solely on the fact that they are both minors and it would be difficult to convict the perp. However, we have to congratulate I.S. for combining several of the awkward markers:

• The reverse attack
• The incredibly creepy closeup as he pre-determines his rape-huggy actions
• The sitting-down position which just looks wrong 

Then of course add to it the fact that he has no idea that the person he is compelled to hug is actually a he-she. See, we could all learn from this that our actions have consequences.


Video
To truly appreciate the sheer unwatchability of this scene, here is the video with the excruciating slow motion and mockingly romantic music.