Thursday, August 05, 2010
Love Exposure
Sion Sono is quickly becoming one of my favourite directors. His movies blend the subtle sickness and sad undertones of Todd Solondz's Happiness, and the over-the-top violence, sexual kinkiness, surrealism, and barmy horror of Takashi Miike's films of the late 90s and early noughts, you know, before he decided to become a jobber. The first movie of his I saw, Suicide Circle, got under my skin before I could realize it. And when I watched Strange Circus, I had to get back to it a year after watching the first 10 minutes of it because it had already gotten under my skin. Though of course, when I did watch it, it went in a completely different direction than I had imagined... then a million different more after that. That was the film where I started to feel the love. I've gone on to watch as many movies of his as I can find.
Two weeks ago, I sat down to watch one of his latest releases, Love Exposure, and my mind's still smoking and wobbling around like hot rubber. This movie is a four hour long romance/black comedy/action/coming-of-age/religious satire, not particularly in that order, though at times, all of these things at once.
Love Exposure is novelistic in scale with its wide and wild plot which really allows the story to breathe. Its protagonist Yu Tsunoda is a young man whose mother dies only after telling him that the girl he should fall in love with should have the traits of virgin Mary. After becoming a widower, his father Tetsu, a devout catholic, becomes a priest. He is dedicated to his job, and adheres to his duties until a troubled woman literally barges into his life. They have a love affair in a house they rent far away from the church. The relationship goes to shit quicker than relationships usually do, and it sends Tetsu off the rails. His sermons become harsh and accusatory, and he squeezes confessions out of his son. Yu eventually commits transgressions which become increasingly more sinful to win his father's attention. This eventually leads him to getting caught up with a band of troublemakers who get into fights and shoplift. From there, it leads to him getting upskirt photos of girls, flipping and rolling around like a ninja and taking snapshots of their panties.
His father reacts extremely negatively to this, causing Yu to take even more pictures. His pastime eventually leads to him making a bet with one of his friends to see who can take the best upskirt photo. He loses, and has to dress up as a woman and kiss a girl while speaking in an effeminate voice. So dressed up as a woman named Ms. Scorpion, he sees a girl about to be attacked by a gang of thugs. He intervenes, kisses her, sees traits of Virgin Mary in her, and gets his first erection. The girl is Yoko, and it later turns out that this girl is the step daughter of Koike, the woman who had an affair with his father. To complicate things, his father falls back in love with Koike after she chases him down and knocks his car into a lake. Yoko is in love with the woman Yu was dressed up as, but has no interest in Yu himself. Complicating things even further is a creepy girl named Saori who has a profoundly fucked up past. She has been keeping a close eye on Yu, and eventually wedges herself into the relationship, saying that she is actually Ms. Scorpion. This is only the first hour and a half of the movie, and from this point on, it only gets weirder...
Having spoiled enough, I will just say that it leads to a genre hopping journey which involves a sinister cult, shady porn dealers, sex, seppuku, blood baths, and a whole lot more.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and it has easily done for me what Taxidermia, Ex-Drummer, and Synecdoche, New York did for me last year in being the most wild and refreshing movies which pulled my intestines out of my navel and smacked me with them. The plot is weird, original, sprawling and unpredictable. The acting is over-the-top. The humour is absurd beyond belief, yet it has real heart (and various other body parts) to it. It had a decent soundtrack. I will always hear the second movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony anytime I think of this movie. The J-Pop wasn't too bad either. I think a couple songs did annoy me.
As for the cinematography, it was decently shot. There weren't any awe-inspiring shots, however, and I'm not too wild about it being shot digitally, and everything does look a little bright and colourful, but it doesn't really contradict the movie's tone. Also, a part involving a penis amputation sort of had its impact dampened by the fact that the penis was blurred out. I understand it's a legal issue as to why genitals both male and female can't be shown in their films, but it's a little disconcerting. And I find the law stupid.
If it's necessary for the theme, or subject matter, parts shouldn't be blurred out for the sake of a stupid law. Not that I personally need or desire to see full frontal nudity in every movie I see. Heaven knows I felt pretty sick after seeing Shortbus, but that might have to do with the movie being total trash.
I'm doing it... I'm going off topic big time. But anyway, Love Exposure: Brilliant movie. I like movies which are a little messy and loose, and as long as they're not too much so. That's what this movie was, and that's why I found it to be perfect.
10/10
See everyone in hell!
