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Love Exposure

(Ai no mukidashi)

Synopsis

An extraordinary cult sensation from Japan, giddily hailed as an epic indie masterpiece by some, Love Exposure for most will be an unforgettable half day experience in a cinema, worth every one of its 237 minutes. From the director of past Fanomenon hits Suicide Club and Exte – Hair Extensions, Love Exposure is a hilarious, outrageous and yes, ultimately moving, romantic action comedy about the descent of innocent high-school student Yu into sin and his obsession with man-resistant Yoko. You will never hear Ravel’s Bolero in the same way again.

Reviews

Love Exposure does not exactly scream appeal. Nearly 4 hours long, subtitled; it all sounds very high brow to the average cinema-goer, except that the subject matter is possibly the lowest of brows – a kid who just loves taking pictures under girls’ skirts. The question is, is there anything more to the hype than the film’s length and perverted storyline? Indeed, it is a shame that films can be reduced to their lowest common denominator, as Love Exposure is so much more than this. It is in fact full of surprises as one of the most obscene and bizarre yet touching and engaging coming-of-age stories ever told. Fans of director Shion Sono’s previous bizarre concept horror stylings (Exte: Hair Extensions (LIFF 2007) and Suicide Circle) will not be disappointed: Love Exposure has something for every type of film fan, and that includes plenty of blood splatter and gore along the way With his mother dead and priest father given up on him, Yu descends into a world of sin in order to reconnect with his father in his confession booth. He is taught all the world’s truth lie between a woman’s legs, and so commences almost military-worthy training to perfect the art of ‘tosatsu’; or ‘peek-a-pantie’. Eventually he is master of is art and his own voyeuristic gang, yet with all the panties he can snap, why does he not feel like a man? We learn of the fateful encounters of the women who enter Yu’s life over the coming chapters, including the obsessive Koike and her mysterious gang, and Yoko the man-hating, Kurt Cobain loving love interest with major emotional baggage dealt with through violent outbursts. An emotion fraught love triangle for Yu takes shape, but as his past sins come to haunt him, Yu must show what he has learnt about love to redeem every relationship with those around him, and he is thrown into a world of religion far more cultish than his Catholic upbringing. As he discovers Keiko’s psychotic intentions, he must fight for his freedom and the girl he loves. Religion, family, love and perhaps most of all sin are the themes of Love Exposure, told by way of perversion, sex and gore. So many things, so much time: Love Exposure has it all. Yu could be a nasty deluded little pervert, and this is how the plot may seem on paper. In reality his escapades are more Benny Hill than sex offender as Yu is a perfect protagonist; likeable, obscure, troubled and funny, played realistically with love and humour. The whole point of his ‘perversion’ is that his heart isn’t in it; he’s no pervert, but merely wishes to sin to connect with his dad during confessionals at church. For crying out loud, the poor lad’s first kiss happens when he’s dressed in drag! His only obsession is, sweetly, for the girl he loves. Caricatures and personified concepts more than characters support a superbly intricate script, and are revealed gradually in the chapterised structure, appearing as enigmas only to later be explained, along with call-backs to seemingly unrelated events. This interconnectivity and circularity results amazingly in no drag to this epic, no wishing to cut to the chase: the chase itself is what it’s all about in this engaging story of Yu’s loves and obsessions, sexual and otherwise. If the first half is about humour, martial arts and teenage perversions in the lightest way possible, the second gives us drama: drama and emotional trauma. Obscenities and controversy in both halves represent the dynamics of life to the full, complete with excessive blood splatters, laugh out loud comedy and the breathtaking physicality of the martial arts sequences. Real emotion and ethics are pitched against superficial perversions and voyeuristic tendencies in Love Exposure. Sono furthers his ability to represent the seedy, dark underbelly of teenagers in Japan, with such contrasting themes of humour, love, gore, perversion and obsession, and more than anything what can come about when as teenagers we are exposed to love.