I think I want to get this out of the way: This film is long at almost 4 hours. I would guess that it is better to watch in one sitting but that length may make it tricky. That I did watch it in one sitting[1] is testament to how interesting I found it - but interesting is not necessarily the same as good.
"Chapters". That is one way of breaking a film up and making it manageable and that is what a film like "Love Exposure" needed. Shion Sono is not an idiot so he put them in. The first three chapters are exposition chapters for the three main characters - all 17 year old students.
Yuu [Takahiro Nishijima]: The son of a "father" - a priest. Christianity is not that common in Japan but being at the head of a Christian community brings pressure for Yu's father and, after his wife's passing, he sees sin everywhere. He asks his son to confess but Yu has done little wrong - and so his sin is being unaware if his sins (which is more than a little recursive). Later Yu gives tenuous sins, and then lies for larger ones but his father sees through this until he is pushed into actual sinning. In a roundabout fashion, this leads to Yu heading up a team of guys that take upskirt photos of schoolgirls. Non-consensual ones. Mechanically non-consensual.
Yoko[Hikari Mitsushima]: A schoolgirl that ends up in Yu's class at school and also, bizarrely, in his house. Due to her upbringing, she has grown to hate all men (with the honourable exception of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain) and so hates Yu[2] too.
Koike[Sakura Ando]: Another schoolgirl that ends up in Yu's class that is somewhat taken by him for reasons that are not too clear - they first meet when she spots him taking photos of her pants... In her spare time, she is also a member of Zero Church and, impressed with Yu's earnest photography, she thinks that she can bring him in to the church.
The three first chapters all end at the same point in the street where they all meet and then brought together throughout the rest of the film. And what a "rest of the film" it is as it veers through and around topics scattered around like confetti.
It is pretty difficult to describe Ai no Muikidashi without making it sound truly nonsensical because it actually is nonsensical. Nonsensical, incoherent, uneven and occasionally melodramatic. The motivations for the characters do not really make sense, the atmosphere flits between slapstick, sombre, sweet and silly throughout - and not even scene by scene but within scenes. Yet, these are all positive things for the film and the mark of brilliance is that all these elements come together to make something that is far greater than those constituent parts. In some respects, this is like a Rovian[3] film. The uneven nature of the film lends strength to the slapstick and, inexplicably, weight to the drama. A biblical recital of Corinthians 13 (in Japanese) is expertly done with real emotion and urgency within the film. Without the film, it would be hammy and stupid. The incoherence is totally coherent within the film.
I know that the film's length will put a lot of people off, I did not watch it for a few years because of it, but the pace is quite high and it is consistently interesting enough to keep your attention. There are enough ideas to fill the time and the plumber/kitchen-sink approach is cleverly pulled off. Normally, I do not like saying too much about a film's story as it "spoils" it but with Love Exposure, I am just not sure where to start.
I would suggest you start at the beginning and see where it takes you. Probably to the end with a smile on your face.
Trailer here:
1. I rarely seem to watch films in one sitting and usually find any film that is markedly over two hours to be quite a chore. I initially planned to watch Ai no Mukidashi as two 2 hour films over two evenings.↩
2. Phonetically, this is a good way of remembering the spelling of the present UK Chancellor. It is spelled "Osborne" because he hates "u".↩
3. Karl Rove's electioneering strategy, copied by right wingers the world over, is to, counter-intuitively, make the opposition's strengths their greatest weakness.↩
"Chapters". That is one way of breaking a film up and making it manageable and that is what a film like "Love Exposure" needed. Shion Sono is not an idiot so he put them in. The first three chapters are exposition chapters for the three main characters - all 17 year old students.
Yuu [Takahiro Nishijima]: The son of a "father" - a priest. Christianity is not that common in Japan but being at the head of a Christian community brings pressure for Yu's father and, after his wife's passing, he sees sin everywhere. He asks his son to confess but Yu has done little wrong - and so his sin is being unaware if his sins (which is more than a little recursive). Later Yu gives tenuous sins, and then lies for larger ones but his father sees through this until he is pushed into actual sinning. In a roundabout fashion, this leads to Yu heading up a team of guys that take upskirt photos of schoolgirls. Non-consensual ones. Mechanically non-consensual.
Yoko[Hikari Mitsushima]: A schoolgirl that ends up in Yu's class at school and also, bizarrely, in his house. Due to her upbringing, she has grown to hate all men (with the honourable exception of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain) and so hates Yu[2] too.
Koike[Sakura Ando]: Another schoolgirl that ends up in Yu's class that is somewhat taken by him for reasons that are not too clear - they first meet when she spots him taking photos of her pants... In her spare time, she is also a member of Zero Church and, impressed with Yu's earnest photography, she thinks that she can bring him in to the church.
It is pretty difficult to describe Ai no Muikidashi without making it sound truly nonsensical because it actually is nonsensical. Nonsensical, incoherent, uneven and occasionally melodramatic. The motivations for the characters do not really make sense, the atmosphere flits between slapstick, sombre, sweet and silly throughout - and not even scene by scene but within scenes. Yet, these are all positive things for the film and the mark of brilliance is that all these elements come together to make something that is far greater than those constituent parts. In some respects, this is like a Rovian[3] film. The uneven nature of the film lends strength to the slapstick and, inexplicably, weight to the drama. A biblical recital of Corinthians 13 (in Japanese) is expertly done with real emotion and urgency within the film. Without the film, it would be hammy and stupid. The incoherence is totally coherent within the film.
I know that the film's length will put a lot of people off, I did not watch it for a few years because of it, but the pace is quite high and it is consistently interesting enough to keep your attention. There are enough ideas to fill the time and the plumber/kitchen-sink approach is cleverly pulled off. Normally, I do not like saying too much about a film's story as it "spoils" it but with Love Exposure, I am just not sure where to start.
I would suggest you start at the beginning and see where it takes you. Probably to the end with a smile on your face.
Trailer here:
1. I rarely seem to watch films in one sitting and usually find any film that is markedly over two hours to be quite a chore. I initially planned to watch Ai no Mukidashi as two 2 hour films over two evenings.↩
2. Phonetically, this is a good way of remembering the spelling of the present UK Chancellor. It is spelled "Osborne" because he hates "u".↩
3. Karl Rove's electioneering strategy, copied by right wingers the world over, is to, counter-intuitively, make the opposition's strengths their greatest weakness.↩
