When affluent, emotionally guarded fashion editor Kosuke (Ryohei Suzuki) hires himself a young, cash-strapped personal trainer, he doesn’t mind the flirting mixed in with the weightlifting, but personal connections, to him, are mainly transactional. For charming Ryuta (San Francisco-born, Tokyo-raised actor Hio Miyazawa) however, those boundaries are more porous — and while the two men’s physical chemistry is undeniable, Ryuta shows he is also willing to make himself emotionally vulnerable. In this beautifully observed character drama, as Kosuke and Ryuta’s bond deepens, so do the contrasting themes of love and money, selfishness and vulnerability, autonomy and dependency.

With an intimate handheld camera tracking the handsome leads’ every furtive look or tender caress, director Daishi Matsunaga brings us directly into the crux of these two men’s emotional and moral balancing act: Is accepting another man’s generosity a sign of weakness? is being a sugar daddy inherently egotistical? Kosuke — whose relationship with his father is formal at best — finds himself thawing in the warmth of Ryuta’s bond with his mother; as he reassesses his own path, Egoist becomes a moving, tender study in the power of love.