This afternoon-to-evening was the world premiere of Sono Sion's 4-hour opus Love Exposure (Ai no Mukidashi, 『愛のむきだし』) at TOKYO FILMeX. The English synopsis on the festival site is quite short, so here's the slightly longer one from the catalogue:Protagonist Yu comes from a devoutly Christian family. A certain incident results in his priest father forcing him to confess his sins, which he commits daily out of a strong desire for praise. In the process Yu develops a taste for the sin of secretly taking photos of others and becomes the sneak photography king of high school students, but then he falls in love with a girl named Yoko who he meets by chance one day in town. Their relationship leads to unexpected developments involving a mysterious religious cult...With an extraordinary running time of almost four hours, Sono Sion's latest film is an unconventional masterwork that throws various aspects of contemporary Japan into its wild potpourri, depicted in the framework of an epic love story. His adeptness in presenting chaos as chaos while also realizing breathless entertainment is worthy of admiration. Nishijima Takahiro, lead vocalist of pop group AAA, gives a fine performance as Yu. Mistushima Hikari and Ando Sakura are also wonderful as the two women in Yu's life.And from distributor/sales agent Phantom Film's press notes. I first heard details about it from the company in Pusan at the beginning of October and had known it'd premiere at FILMeX, making the wait longer:
A high school boy named Yu will go to the extreme, even risk his life to save his step-sister Yoko from a religious cult. A powerful new drama by the one and only auteur Sono Sion.
Yu is a high school boy who lives with his father who became a priest after Yu's mother died. But one day, a woman, Kaori, falls for Yu's father although she knows that he is a priest. Yu is completely against this because he does not like Kaori's eccentric presence intruding the father and son's peaceful life, and even more because she brought with her Yoko, the girl he fell in love with at first sight. He does not want the girl of his dreams to become a step-sister! One day, religious cult member Koike finds this so-called family as an interesting group and kidnaps three members of the family leaving Yu behind on purpose hoping he will join the cult soon. He will not fall for Koike's tricks, but instead will do anything to save the love of his life Yoko from this religious cult. An exciting, powerful drama based on some true events.
Don't kill me, but I'm not going to review the film. The house was packed to the rafters, with a good number of foreigners. Go on then, attempt to review it! All I can manage is a brief shopping list (potential spoilers):
Finally, worthy successors to the droogs of Clockwork Orange, and they're female. Endô Shûsaku-esque tests of Catholic faith. Childhood traumas that recall the darkest of Tezuka Osamu via Miike. A creepy cult that will make fans of Urasawa Naoki's 20th Century Boys want to sign up. The highest number of up-skirt panty shots in history. Toei Pinky Violence is truly resurrected -- Kaji Meiko's Sasori and her Stray Cat Rock personas are somehow reborn in both the young male and female leads. Samurai sword-induced arterial spray that will quench the thirst of Lone Wolf and Cub devotees. A classical and rock soundtrack that won't quit (live performance of Yurayura Teikoku's amazing title track here).
But in the end it's all about love that hurts so bad it turns tears to blood, torn from decades old pages of Sono Sion's strange circus life. It's a twistedly ambitious, gonzo indie epic. After the last frame of film, two words came to mind -- words that come only after movies with this much spirit...Bow down.
Update: Edmund Yeo has written up some extended thoughts on the film, including some of Sono's answers at the post-screening Q&A, which is useful to further understanding this beast.
5 comments:
closer to the exciting mashup of exte and further away from
the dullness of norikos dinner table? that's the sense I get.
I really hope it is. the mans clearly a genius, but I've mixed
feelings about the results in terms of how exciting they are
in relation to how exciting they can or could be.
Wow wow wow. I can not wait to see this one. Sono Sion has to be one of the most interesting filmmakers alive, yet by and large ignored by mainstream critics. I took a shot at writing about Noriko's Dinner Table (which I didn't find dull at all) but realized I needed to sit down and watch it at least one more time. It is so incredibly dense. It sounds like Love Exposure is no less convoluted!
I think it lives up to its lofty ambitions and goes beyond.
The 4 hours felt shorter than many movies half its length. I didn't feel the 10-minute intermission was even necessary.
I was there too, yesterday. Enjoyed the film immensely, gonna write a review soon. Right now I'm watching Noriko's Dinner Table to get a better idea of Sono Sion's filmmaking style and recurring themes.
There are parts of the film that faltered a little, and some plot holes too, but most of it worked. I like it. Bought a can of coffee before the film because I thought I needed caffeine to make me sit through the thing, was expecting a Bela Tarr-style arthouse film. But in the end the coffee remained untouched.
I, too, was there and agree wholeheartedly with Jason - this thing's a masterpiece. It kind of summarizes all of Sono's career to date, being equally artsy and mainstream, screwed-up hentai and sweet romance. This thing could bust him wide open all over the international festival and commercial circuit, if only for two things: the four hour length and the fact that Phantom Film may not be able to give it as big a push as it needs.
I hope it's not betraying any trusts to say that the film will be making its world premiere in February at a certain large, Germanic festival. If - WHEN! - Subway Cinema gives it its US, and hopefully North American premiere at NYAFF09, I've already decided to forego the intermission. I agree with Jason - it doesn't need it and it was frustratingly inserted into an exciting part of the film. The movies moves so well that it doesn't have a good spot to slice it in two. Fuck the bathroom - bring an empty bottle and sit through the whole four hours. It sounds difficult but once you get into the movie's rhythm, you'll understand.
My favorite thing about the movie: the title card pops onscreen at nearly exactly the one-hour mark. I love you, Sion Sono.
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