Virgin Psychics (5 Stars)

"Virgin Psychics" is a film I can watch again and again. It's in my top 100 films list, and rightfully so. Admittedly, it's close to the bottom of my list, but there's a lot of hard competition. Being anywhere in the list is a high distinction.

One of the reasons I like this film so much is Ami Tomite. Unlike her serious role in "Antiporno", "Virgin Psychics" is a film that makes no claims to be anything other than a puerile sex fantasy. It's not pornographic in the usual sense, it's more the type of film that would make teenage boys snicker. The film rolls from one upskirt shot to the next.

Ami Tomite is wonderful as Akiko, a very playful kind of villain. She captures women and makes clones of them that she can control, then sends the clones into town to make everyone think about sex. But really, is that so bad? She's hardly your conventional world-conquering supervillain.

And Ami is certainly easy on the eye. The film gives us plenty of opportunities to admire her, including a remarkable number of shots looking up her skirt. She's beautiful, mischievous and clearly having fun with the role.

Isn't she beautiful? And before you ask, Akiko is a virgin.

Antiporno (5 Stars)

What an absolutely brilliant film! Sion Sono has made something completely crazy, unpredictable and wonderfully disturbing, but for me the real reason it works so well is Ami Tomite. This is probably her best performance, and she has to do an extraordinary amount with the character of Kyoko.

At first, Kyoko appears to be completely in control. She's a successful young artist, surrounded by colour and luxury, and she treats everyone around her as if she's the most important person in the world. Tomite throws herself into this performance with enormous energy. She's loud, theatrical, arrogant and deliberately over-the-top. I thought she was excellent from the opening scenes.

Then the film turns everything upside down. The Kyoko we've been watching is revealed to be a character in a film being made, and the seemingly confident woman is actually an inexperienced actress who's being treated terribly by the other actresses. The person who appeared to have all the power is suddenly the person who has none.

This is where Tomite is really amazing. She's not simply playing two different versions of Kyoko; she's playing an actress who's playing a character. The exaggerated performance we saw earlier isn't Tomite overacting. She's acting as Kyoko acting in a film. Once we understand that, those wild gestures and outbursts suddenly make perfect sense.

There's an extraordinary extra layer to this, too. In the interview on the disc, Tomite explains that Sion Sono deliberately didn't want her to know what was happening in the film. That's the perfect way to make "Antiporno". Kyoko is constantly trapped in situations she doesn't understand, while Tomite herself was apparently being kept uncertain about where Sono was taking the story. That uncertainty becomes part of the performance.

And Kyoko is trapped everywhere. She's trapped by her family, by her memories, by the film she's making and by the various identities she's forced to adopt. Even when she appears to be completely free, she's performing. The extravagant apartment that initially looks like a playground increasingly feels like a cage.

Tomite captures all these different sides of Kyoko brilliantly. She's confident, aggressive and hysterically funny, but underneath that there's a frightened and vulnerable young woman. Then Sono takes us back to Kyoko as a schoolgirl, and Tomite has to find another character again. She makes all these changes convincingly without ever losing the sense that they're different pieces of the same person.

The scene involving Kyoko's supposed first sexual experience is another example of the film playing with performance and reality. She doesn't actually have sex with the man; she asks him to grind against her so that it will look as though she's having sex on camera. Even here, she's performing an identity rather than simply experiencing something. The film later turns the memory into something even more surreal, with the sexual imagery giving way to an empty forest. It's another reminder that we're never quite sure whether we're watching reality, memory, fantasy or a performance.

That's what makes Tomite's job so difficult. She isn't merely playing Kyoko; she's playing Kyoko playing Kyoko, while the film continually changes the rules around her. Yet she makes it all work.

There are plenty of things in "Antiporno" that I didn't completely understand, such as the film crew appearing in Kyoko's home, but I didn't mind. The film isn't interested in giving us a straightforward explanation of everything that happens. It's interested in showing what it feels like to be trapped inside a world where the boundaries between reality and performance have completely broken down.

And Ami Tomite is at the centre of it all. She can be outrageous one moment, vulnerable the next and completely convincing in both roles. It's a remarkable performance in a remarkable film.

Antiporno is brilliant. And Ami Tomite is absolutely amazing.

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Tag (5 Stars)

A brilliant film about the objectification of women.

If you buy the Eureka film, please note the following subtitle errors.

Missing subtitles:

55:29  Great posture and steady head.

55:33  She's probably in her best condition.

55:37  They're right behind the leaders. It'll be close.

Wrongly placed subtitle:

At 65:19 there's a subtitle "The Male World". This is the translation of a sign that appears on screen at 67:24.

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Exte (5 Stars)

If you've seen Sion Sono's films, you'll know horror is rarely his main goal. Even when he's dealing with mass suicide, cults or psychological collapse, he's more interested in social satire, surrealism and existential questions than simple scares. That's what makes "Exte" such an oddity. It's the closest Sono has ever come to making a straight horror film.

The premise is gloriously bizarre. Hair removed from the body of a dead woman and used for hair extensions begins to grow and develop a murderous life of its own. It sounds ridiculous, and in less capable hands it would have been nothing more than an extended joke. Instead, Sono embraces the absurdity, mixing grisly body horror with moments of black comedy and genuine unease. The result is Japanese horror at its most eccentric, where beauty and revulsion become impossible to separate.

The film's outstanding star is Chiaki Kuriyama. She's best known for playing the deadly schoolgirl Gogo Yubari in "Kill Bill", but "Exte" is the film in which she delivers the finest performance of her career. As Yuko, a young hair stylist suddenly burdened with caring for her neglected niece while battling a supernatural nightmare, she's completely believable. She brings warmth, vulnerability and determination to a film that could easily have collapsed under its own outrageous concept. Even when giant masses of living hair are attacking people, she keeps the emotional core firmly grounded.

"Exte" may not have the spiritual depth of "Suicide Club", "Noriko's Dinner Table" or "Strange Circus", but that was never Sono's intention. He's having fun with horror conventions while still injecting enough eccentricity to remind you whose film you're watching. It's outrageous, inventive and frequently revolting, yet surprisingly heartfelt beneath the gore.

For fans of Japanese horror, "Exte" remains one of the strangest films of the 2000's and a reminder that even when Sion Sono sets out to make a conventional horror film, he can't resist making something wonderfully, gloriously weird.

Strange Circus (5 Stars)

If you go into "Strange Circus" expecting a straightforward horror film, prepare to have your mind thoroughly scrambled. This is the kind of film that makes you stop asking what's happening and start wondering whether any of it is happening at all.

Directed by Sion Sono, "Strange Circus" blurs the line between memory, fantasy and reality until it completely disappears. Abuse, murder, fiction and trauma become so tangled together that every scene makes you question the last one. Are you watching the truth, a novel, or someone's desperate attempt to escape the truth? The film never gives you an easy answer.

That's what makes it so fascinating.

The dreamlike visuals, grotesque circus imagery and haunting performances create an atmosphere that's both beautiful and deeply unsettling. Every time you think you've worked the story out, Sono quietly suggests you've been fooled.

"Strange Circus" isn't interested in explaining itself. It wants you to leave with questions rather than answers. Days later, you'll probably still be wondering what was real... and whether that question was ever the right one to ask.

In a recent interview Sion Sono claims this is one of his favourite films. It was made in 2005, when he was still developing his style. His previous films, especially "Suicide Club", had established him as a creator of unsettling horror films. "Strange Circus" continues in this vein, but it adds eroticism to the mix in a way that disgusts more than arouses. It's the sort of film that many people will turn off within the first half hour.

At the time Sono made the film he was dating a woman who owned a shop that sold BDSM outfits. Most of the non-speaking extras are the shop's customers, giving the film a bizarre realism.

Noriko's Dinner Table (5 Stars)

If "Suicide Club" was Sion Sono's cinematic hand grenade, "Noriko's Dinner Table" is the slow poison that lingers in your bloodstream long after the explosion. Marketed as a companion piece rather than a straightforward sequel, it revisits the same world from an entirely different angle. Forget the infamous opening train massacre and the barrage of shocking violence. This time Sono's weapon of choice is emotional devastation.

At first glance, the film appears almost restrained. Teenager Noriko (Kazue Fukiishi) runs away from her suffocating rural home after becoming obsessed with an online community, eventually falling under the spell of Kumiko, the mysterious "Ueno Station 54", played with eerie composure by Tsugumi. Kumiko operates one of Tokyo's strangest businesses: a rental family service where complete strangers are hired to become daughters, wives, husbands, parents or entire families. What sounds bizarre quickly becomes terrifying as every relationship dissolves into performance and every performance begins to feel more authentic than reality itself.

This is where "Noriko's Dinner Table" becomes even more disturbing than "Suicide Club". The earlier film shocked audiences with graphic deaths and surreal horror. Here, Sono suggests something far more frightening: that modern society has become so emotionally bankrupt that people are willing to pay complete strangers to pretend they love them. The film argues that identity itself has become a commodity, something to be bought, sold and performed until nobody remembers who they really are.

Sono's portrayal of rental families is a work of genius. Every encounter strips away another layer of authenticity until the audience is trapped in the same uncertainty as the characters. Are they acting? Have they become the roles they were hired to play? Was there ever a "real" person underneath? The film offers no comforting answers, only increasingly unsettling questions.

One of Sono's boldest decisions is his extensive use of voiceovers. Nearly every major character narrates their thoughts, revisiting the same events from conflicting perspectives. In lesser hands, this could have become repetitive or self-indulgent. Instead, it becomes hypnotic. Every new narration peels back another emotional layer, exposing guilt, loneliness, resentment and desperate longing that remain invisible on the surface. The result feels less like watching a film than listening to damaged souls desperately trying to explain themselves.

The slower pacing will undoubtedly divide audiences. Anyone expecting another frantic descent into horror like "Suicide Club" may initially wonder whether they're watching the right film. At nearly three hours, Sono deliberately allows scenes to breathe, conversations to linger and silences to become uncomfortable. Yet that patience is exactly what gives the film its crushing emotional weight. Rather than assaulting the audience with horror, it quietly suffocates them.

The links to "Suicide Club" gradually emerge like buried memories. Familiar characters return. Seemingly inexplicable events acquire heartbreaking new meaning. Instead of solving every mystery left behind by its predecessor, "Noriko's Dinner Table" reveals that the mass suicides were merely symptoms. The disease was already there: fractured families, emotional isolation and a generation that no longer knows how to distinguish genuine connection from manufactured affection.

Even the recurring references to Amaterasu, the Shinto Sun Goddess, become devastatingly appropriate. In mythology, Amaterasu hides herself away inside a cave, plunging the world into darkness until she is coaxed back into the light. Sono transforms that ancient story into a metaphor for modern alienation. His characters retreat into emotional caves of their own making, burying themselves beneath invented identities, borrowed personalities and carefully rehearsed roles. They don't simply lose each other; they lose themselves.

Where "Suicide Club" screamed its anger at a disconnected society, "Noriko's Dinner Table" whispers the same message with terrifying conviction. It abandons shock tactics in favour of psychological horror, and the result is arguably even more unsettling. The monsters aren't killers or ghosts. They're ordinary families who have forgotten how to speak to one another, teenagers who find more warmth from strangers than their own parents and adults so desperate for affection that they'll happily pay someone else to fake it.

This isn't simply one of the greatest companion films ever made. It's one of the bleakest examinations of identity, loneliness and modern Japan ever committed to cinema. "Suicide Club" leaves you stunned. "Noriko's Dinner Table" leaves you questioning every relationship in your own life. Long after the credits roll, it's a film that refuses to let go.

Suicide Club (5 Stars)

Time and time again the sky is blue,

And yet it's strange how people seem to always fall in love.

An unfamiliar yellow dog keeps grinning

As it tears us from the ones we love.

Because the dead,

Because the dead,

Because the dead shine all night long.

I want to die as beautifully as Joan of Arc

Inside a Bresson film.

Lesson one, apply the shaving cream and smile

As you slowly slice away the heart

Because the dead,

Because the dead,

Because the dead shine all night long.

Feel the warmth of the spring rain

As it gently moistens down a cheek

That's streaked with dried up tears.

A guileless boy of five years old stares blankly in the face of death

While his heart is cut and torn away.

Because the dead,

Because the dead,

Because the dead shine all night long.

Because the dead,

Because the dead,

Because the dead shine all night long.

Few films have ever announced themselves with such breath-taking audacity. "Suicide Club" opens with one of the most infamous scenes in horror history, as fifty-four smiling schoolgirls calmly join hands and throw themselves beneath an oncoming train. The resulting carnage is so extreme that it's almost surreal, immediately signalling that Sion Sono has no interest in making a conventional thriller.

As mass suicides sweep across Japan, weary detective Kuroda struggles to uncover the truth. Every lead only deepens the mystery. A bizarre website appears to predict the growing death toll, grotesque rolls of stitched human skin arrive at police stations and the relentlessly upbeat J-Pop group Dessert seems to cast an eerie shadow over every tragedy. Meanwhile, the flamboyant psychopath Genesis, played with unforgettable manic energy by Rolly, taunts the investigation while hinting that something far larger is unfolding.

Is Dessert secretly manipulating its fans through coded messages hidden in its posters and songs? Is there a suicide cult operating in the shadows? Or has modern society become so emotionally hollow that people no longer need anyone to persuade them to die? Sono deliberately refuses to provide simple answers, leaving viewers to wrestle with one haunting question: "Are you connected to yourself?"

Beneath the shocking violence lies a savage satire of celebrity culture, media obsession and the loneliness lurking beneath modern life. The unforgettable final concert by Dessert offers no comforting explanation, only the chilling suggestion that the machinery of pop culture will continue smiling long after the bodies have been cleared away.

Violent, provocative and deeply unsettling, Suicide Club remains one of the most original cult horror films of the twenty-first century. Its gruesome set pieces may grab your attention, but it's the questions it leaves behind that will haunt you long after the credits roll.

Tag (5 Stars)

Amazon Friday #42

Yesterday I discovered that "Tag" is available on Amazon Prime. That was my excuse for watching it again. Do I really need an excuse? "Tag" is brilliant, one of the best films ever made. So today I watched it dubbed into German.

It's a film I've often watched. Today was the tenth time. In cases like this I try to forget the film. I imagine that I'm watching it for the first time. That's the best way to enjoy a film like "Tag" that isn't explained until the final scenes.

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Prisoners of the Ghostland (3 Stars)

I gave this film a good rating the first time I saw it. Now I have to change my mind. I was biased towards it because it was made by my favourite director, Sion Sono, and it starred Nicolas Cage. Another positive factor is that it features two of the world's most beautiful actresses, Sofia Boutella and Yuzuka Nakaya, pictured above.

The strength of Sion Sono's films is that they're mad, but they always make sense. Maybe 54 schoolgirls hold hands and jump in front of a train, but there's a logical explanation. Maybe a serial killer replaces his victims' limbs with mannequin limbs. There's always an explanation. Except in "Prisoners of the Ghostland". It's a post-apocalyptic film, and in post-apocalyptic films ridiculous things are thrown together. People are holding on to the hands of a clock because they think they can prevent a catastrophe by stopping time.

Sion Sono faithfully follows the rules of the genre. But it's a genre I don't like. Nicolas Cage called "Prisoners of the Ghostland" the wildest film of his career. Maybe it is. But it's not his best film, and it's one of Sion Sono's weakest films. I doubt I'll watch it again.

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Love and Peace (5 Stars)

This is my Christmas film for 2022. It's unique in two ways. First, it's the only Christmas film that has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Second, it's the only film with a 100% rating that I also like. As I repeatedly tell my readers, I usually disagree with the critics. Not this time.

The film has messages, some of which are more obvious than others. It talks of the fickleness of those who receive Christmas gifts. Dogs given on Christmas day are abandoned. That's terrible. But the film also suggests that toys have feelings. Little Maria (shown above in Santa's loving arms) was a Christmas gift that was only kept for a few days. Yuri played with her, then threw her away when she decided Maria wasn't pretty enough. Do dolls really have to be beautiful? My granddaughter Evelyn has a doll called Mia that she carries around with her everywhere. In my opinion, Mia is ugly, i.e. she's not very lifelike, but does Evelyn care? The doll is special to her, hopefully for years to come.

"Love and Peace" also shows that it's possible to want too much and forget what's in front of you. Ryoichi wants to become a big rock star, but as his fame grows he forgets the girl called Yuko who idolises him. She's another doll that's not pretty enough to be played with.

All you need to be happy is a turtle and a woman who loves you. That's what the film says, but I personally don't need a turtle.

Forest Of Love (5 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #19

I've been complaining about the poor film selection on Netflix recently, but there are a few good films if you search hard enough. This is one of them, but be warned: it's the exception, not the rule.

"The Forest of Love" is a Netflix original film, directed by Sion Sono, and as far as I know it's the only Netflix original film to score 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Normally I'm critical of high scores on Rotten Tomatoes, because it's a sign for me that a film is boring, but Sion Sono is my favourite director, so there's no way I'd avoid it.

The film starts with innocent teenage naivety before reaching a climax of terror. Six 15-year-old girls want to perform Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". It sounds scandalous that all the roles should be played by girls, but it's necessary because it's a girls school. But where's the line between fiction and reality? Mitsuko (Juliet) falls in love with Eiko (Romeo) in real life, not knowing that Eiko is already in a lesbian relationship with one of the other girls in the play. She's broken-hearted, but tragedy strikes. Eiko is killed in a car accident. Nobody can have her.

The other five girls make a suicide pact. They decide to jump off the school roof together. Mitsuko backs out at the last moment. The other four girls jump. Three girls die, but Taeko survives with severe injuries. Ten years later the two survivors have developed in opposite directions. Taeko has become a slut, sleeping with a different man every day, just because she can. (I don't like the word "slut", but it's the word Taeko uses to describe herself in the film). Mitsuko is a virgin, resisting all attempts that her parents make to find her a good husband. What the two girls have in common is that they both see visions of Eiko, who they only call Romeo.

Time doesn't stand still. There's a serial killer in the forest outside Tokyo. There must be irony in calling it a Forest of Love. A con man is stalking rich young women, trying to marry them to get his hands on their wealth. Is he able to win Mitsuko's heart? And there's a trio of young, ambitious film-makers who recognise the con man's wiles and want to make a film about him.

After finding out that this film has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100% I checked the score of his other films.

The only other film that scores 100% is his Christmas film, "Love and Peace".

"Himizu" scores 95%, making it his third highest scoring film. It's not in my top films list, but maybe it should be. I need to watch it again.

My favourite film by Sion Sono is "Tag", which scores 92%. That's his fourth highest scoring film.

The four-hour epic "Love Exposure" comes close behind with 91%.

"Antiporno" scores 87%, and it's definitely a film that deserves to be high in my list.

"Cold Fish", currently in 30th place in my top films list, only scores 74%.

Usually I disagree with the opinions of the professional film critics, but they seem to agree with me in their praise of Sion Sono, some films more than others. So maybe the critics aren't all that bad after all. And maybe Netflix does have its benefits.

Prisoners of the Ghostland (4 Stars)

I've been waiting a long time for this film. It should have been released in 2020, but it was delayed by the Corona pandemic. Now I finally have the Blu-ray disc in my hands, almost two years later. It's important enough for me to interrupt my true stories film marathon.

"Prisoners of the Ghostland" was announced as Sion Sono's first English language film. That's stretching it a bit. The film takes place in Japan, and there's a mixture of English and Japanese. I estimate that the languages are evenly distributed. Even Nicolas Cage speaks Japanese in some scenes.

The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, or at least a post-apocalyptic Japan. Unlike other post-apocalyptic films, the action takes place soon after the catastrophe. It's not stated how long, but it can't be more than ten years.

The wealthy and relatively healthy people live in a place called Samurai Town. It's ruled by a man called the Governor, who has chosen to model the town on an old wild western town, complete with cowboys and saloons. There's a nearby settlement called the Ghostland, where the poor and physically deformed live. The Governor keeps a harem of young women that he calls his granddaughters. They're actually sex slaves. His favourite slave, Bernice, flees to the Ghostland. The Governor asks an unnamed convicted murderer to fetch her back. As the film progresses this man is given the name Hero.

Nicolas Cage says this is the wildest film he's ever made. Yes, it's wild, but if you take it in the context of post-apocalyptic films it's very normal. It follows the rules for the genre. It's a society that has descended into chaos, with snippets of past cultures thrown together, because nobody understands their context. Religion and superstition are side by side. There are many precedents in film history. While watching it I was reminded of "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", although it's most similar to the Axa newspaper strip. I used to have a collection of the Axa cartoons in book form, but it was stolen by Thomas Kuzilla of Dearborn Heights, Michigan.

It's no secret that I don't like post-apocalyptic films. The chaos and the anything-is-possible scenarios disturb me. Nevertheless, Sion Sono has done a good job, making "Prisoners of the Ghostland" a welcome addition to the genre. I'll watch it again soon, probably as soon as I've finished my true stories film marathon.

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Tag (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #4

People are calling Yusuke Yamada the Japanese Stephen King. At the age of 40 he's already written more than 30 books, all horror stories. I feel that he's someone whose books I really ought to read. I need to see what the fuss is about.

When he was 19 he wrote his first novel, "Riaru Onigokko". It was an unprecedented success for such a young man. In 2008 it was made into a film, "The Running World". Four sequels were made, followed by a television series. Then in 2015 Sion Sono made another film based on the book. That's the film I'm writing about now. It's also called "The Running World" in Japanese, but in English it's called "Tag". To be fair, I think the Japanese title is better. "Tag" makes no sense in the context of the film.

It's difficult for me to talk about the plot without giving away spoilers. If I just tell you what happens, you'll think the film makes no sense. Don't worry, everything is explained at the end.

Mitsuko

15-year-old Mitsuko is in a bus going away for a school trip. Out of nowhere an invisible force attacks the bus, killing everyone except Mitsuko. She runs away until she reaches her school. Or is it her school? All the other girls know her, but she doesn't know them. Her best friend Aki tells the others that Mitsuko is suffering from amnesia, but as we soon see, Aki knows more than she's saying.

Together with two other friends they skip the first class and go to the lake, where Sur gives her opinions about the nature of the universe. Sur isn't as knowledgeable as Aki, but what she says is partially relevant to Mitsuko's plight.

Aki

Sur

Taeko

They return to school for the second class, just in time to witness a mass slaughter. The teachers kill all the schoolgirls with machine guns and assault rifles.

Mitsuko is in a daze. What's happening? Together with a few surviving girls she runs into the next town, where the mystery deepens.

This is an amazing film that has to be seen to be believed. Surprisingly, the critics love it. It has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Cinema audiences are less enthusiastic and say it doesn't make sense. They're wrong, but I understand their problem. It's a film that has to be watched more than once to be fully appreciated.

Unfortunately, the UK release from Eureka Limited has subtitle errors. In one short scene the subtitles are missing, and in another the subtitle is in the wrong place (two minutes too early). I've rung them, and they say there won't be a new release. They're not a professional company. Any other company would have sent replacement discs free of charge.

Missing subtitles:

55:29  Great posture and steady head.

55:33  She's probably in her best condition.

55:37  They're right behind the leaders. It'll be close.

Wrongly placed subtitle:

At 65:19 there's a subtitle "The Male World". This is the translation of a sign that appears on screen at 67:24. 

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Cold Fish (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #30

They say that a good film shouldn't just tell an interesting story, it should have a character arc. This is the development of the main character from one person to another over the course of a film. Sometimes minor characters in a film also have a character arc, but the focus is on the main character. This could be a moral development, i.e. a bad person learns to do good deeds. More commonly, it's a heroic development, i.e. a person who's weak finds the courage to perform great feats. Think about your favourite film, and you can probably find a character arc. I'll just give one obvious example: in "Doctor Strange" the main character, Doctor Stephen Strange, starts the film as a self-centred man who only believes in what he can see with his own eyes. After a car accident he goes on a spiritual journey to become a selfless warrior who masters the mystic arts, the things that can't be seen.

Character arcs are usually an upward journey. The main character progresses on a journey of improvement. In "Cold Fish" the arc is in the opposite direction. Nobuyuki Shamoto begins the film as the hard-working owner of a shop that sells tropical fish. He loves his wife and his daughter. Over the course of 12 days he becomes a cold-blooded killer who beats his wife and his daughter. 

How can this happen? How could a good man sink so deep?

The more important question is, could this happen to me or you?

Shamoto is put under extreme pressure. His whole world is torn apart when he meets the owner of a bigger tropical fish store, Yukio Murata. He's forced to participate in deeds he would never have considered possible.

Would I break under pressure like this? I think not, but I'd rather not be put to the test.

A message at the beginning of the film announces it as a true story:

The expression "based on a true story" is vague. In some cases it could mean that the film is a completely accurate depiction of real events. In the case of Sion Sono, almost all of his films are based on true stories, but what he means is that he's taken something he heard on the news and has used it as a premise for a film. He wrote "Love Exposure" after hearing about the Japanese Aleph cult, which bears only a vague similarity to the Zero Church in his film. "Cold Fish" is inspired by a Japanese serial killer who owned a dog kennel.

In my review of "Ed Wood" I wrote that I intend to have a true story month later this year, but I didn't know if I have enough films for a whole month. Today I stood in front of my bookshelves and pulled out all the films based on true stories, in the accurate meaning of the word. I found 36 films: 17 DVDs and 19 Blu-rays. Impressive. When I came upstairs I remembered a few other films that I hadn't noticed. I'll reduce the pile of films to 30 or 31, depending on the month. I'll give priority to the films I like the most. I don't know yet how I'll order them. Maybe chronologically, based on the events in the film. Maybe alphabetically? Most likely I'll put them in random order, so I can't be accused of making mistakes.

Keep reading my blog. You know it makes sense.

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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).

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