Love Exposure (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #42

This is a truly epic film. I'm not just talking about its length, 237 minutes, which makes it the second longest film I own on disc. It's the wide ranging scope of the topics discussed. The film covers everything from religion to upskirt photography. 

Yu is a teenage boy who's growing up in a strict Catholic family in Japan. After his mother's death his father, Tetsu, decides to become a priest. Everything goes well until a fallen woman called Kaori comes to the church. She's tortured by the burden of sin in her life. Yu's father baptises her and accepts her into the church, but she falls in love with him. Tetsu isn't strong enough to resist her, so he buys a house a long way from the church where they can live together without his congregation finding out he has a lover. The only person who knows about the relationship is Yu, who lives with them. At this point in the story, Yu is 17 and still goes to school.

As is typical for hypocrites, Tetsu becomes obsessed with the sin of others. He demands that Yu should confess his sins to him every day. That's a problem for Yu, because he's not aware that he's doing anything wrong. At first he tells lies about sins he's never committed, but his father sees through him. So he joins a gang and goes out shoplifting. It makes his father happy that Yu is being open about his sins. But it's not enough. Yu thinks his father is forgiving him to easily, so he wants to commit bigger sins. He begins to take upskirt photos of schoolgirls in the town. The subtitles call them peek-a-panty photos. I like that word.

This makes Tetsu so angry that he beats Yu. Evidently upskirt photography is much more evil than a priest having sex with a woman he isn't married to; and Catholic priests aren't allowed to get married anyway.

The relationship with Kaori only lasts three months. She leaves Tetsu because he refuses to marry her.

Now the next phase of the film begins. In Japan there's a new cult called the Zero Church which has more than 500,000 members. The regional leader is Aya Koike. Apart from her function in the church, she sells fake paintings, she's a cocaine dealer and she likes to cut off men's penises. Everyone needs a hobby. She's been spying on Tetsu and his family for months. She thinks that if she convinces the whole family to join the cult the publicity will attract even more members.

This is where the story gets complicated. I'll describe the plot briefly. If you don't understand it, buy the film and watch it for yourself.

After losing a bet with his gang, Yu is told to dress up as a woman, then go out in town and kiss a woman he finds attractive. That's Yu in the photo with his fellow gang members. He looks quite attractive, apart from having no breasts. He witnesses a schoolgirl being attacked by a group of men (who are actually Zero Church members). Yu rushes in to defend her, and together they defeat the attackers. Yu can see up her skirt when she's kicking the attackers, so he falls in love with her. Love at first panty peek.

The schoolgirl, Yoko, is a lesbian. She hates men, but she falls in love with the woman who helped her. Yu calls himself Miss Scorpion. What he doesn't know is that she's Kaori's daughter. Kaori returns to Tetsu and persuades him to quit as a priest so he can marry her. Yu and Yoko become brother and sister. They go to school together. Yoko hates Yu, not knowing that he's Miss Scorpion, the woman she meets at night.

Aya also enrols in their school. She tells Yoko that she's Miss Scorpion, so Yu has to stand by and watch them kissing in school.

Aya exposes Yu as an upskirt photographer. As a result he's expelled from school. In the aftermath Tetsu, Kaori and Yoko all become members of the Zero Church and are subjected to brainwashing. 

Did I forget anything? Yes and No. I deliberately left out a lot of details. The film has too many subplots to list in this review. I don't want to give away the whole plot. All I'll say is that it continues with Yu attempting to free Yoko from the cult.

This is an amazing film. It's not as difficult to understand as some of Sion Sono's other films, such as "Antiporno", but the sheer scope of the film is breath-taking. It's a film you won't be able to forget.

There are three versions of this film. I've reviewed the standard version, which is the only version available to me. There's an extended version that lasts 275 minutes. The Blu-ray that I own contains the deleted scenes from the extended version. There's also a six-hour director's cut. The extended version and the director's cut are both only available in Japan. I've read reviews which claim that the director's cut is inferior to the standard version, but I'm still curious what happens in the extra 80 minutes (compared to the extended version).

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de