The almost four hours of action and Japanese pop references did not compromise its organic unity. In fact, every single minute is integral. And it quotes Corinthians 13, its very foundation!
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| Upbeat Kickass Gorgeousness by Shion Sono (2008; US Release: 2011) |
Review and Mini-Analysis
The film is about a love triangle between three mentally unstable high school students. Yu was an almost-sinless child of a Catholic priest but having to confess sins to his father, he had to commit sins. When Yu photographed panties, his father finally noticed him. He does not get aroused by women, however. In fact, he only managed to get a massive hard-on with his "Maria": Yoko. Yoko was sexually desired by her father who tried to be a good dad by providing her with mothers. Because of that, she grows to be a man-hater and eventually goes to believe she is a lesbian. One day, dark womanly figure who claims to be a "Miss Scorpion" helps Yoko battle a gang of men. Yoko falls in love with Miss Scorpion who both Yu and Koike claim to be. Koike was physically abused by her father, a well-known man of religion. She left home and was proselytized by the Church of Zero, a phony religion. Love Exposure dances around the story lines of the three offbeat characters.
The first thing to note is the depth of the character studies. Actors Takahiro Nishijima (Yu), Hikari Mitsushima (Yoko) and Sakura Ando (Koike) showed a wide range of emotion depictions. Given the mental instability of the characters, several more emotions have to be touched by the narrative compared to the narrative of a more stable character. The main actors were able to shift to the appropriate emotion although their acting was shaped by the archetypes in Japanese pop culture. This is remarkable in a 4-hour film where the characters could become tedious.
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| This sort of imagery is added in the film to provide commentary |
The narrative itself was straightforward. A long film would give viewers expectations of redundancy or superfluousness. Despite its ungodly length (which extends to 6 hours in the original version), its plot leaves no excesses. To put the notion simply, if you remove a part, the whole film won't make any sense. The integrity of a film justifies its 4 hours. One may also note that the film focuses on the causes and the effects. The micro-elements of the film (example, Master Lloyd's turf) are impressionistic. Nonetheless, the imagery, dialogue and atmosphere try to describe the setting in a tangent way with its theme.
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| Master Lloyd's turf |
Finally, to end my simple review, the most important way to critique a film is how its elements and execution fulfill its purpose. The theme of the film is quite simple: how love is enlightenment. The emotional range of the characters and the effectiveness of their depictions are integral in showing the "darkness" of the characters' conditions. The images, sounds, etc. further emphasize the condition of the situation and even the gravity of the "darkness". Even elements such as baptism, Plato's Allegory of the Cave or Corinthians 13 were utilized in the film to emphasize enlightenment. Baptism is a transition from a God-less life to being a Child of God. The Allegory of the Cave is about a prisoner who is guided outside the removed-from-reality Cave to the Sun, the symbol for the Form of the Good. Corinthians 13 talk of how a person could change and reach a condition of truly loving another. The narrative inclines to the beautiful moments where all the characters move forward from their "darkness" to the "light". It may sound corny but the kickass fighting scenes and colorful characters won't bore you at all. This is the purest cinematic drug.
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| Yu's "Maria" |
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