MARCH 25 » 7:00p
OPENING NIGHT FILM + NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE
2008, Japan, 237 min.
Director/Screenwriter: Sion Sono
Cast: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Sakura Ando, Makiko Wantanabe
From the twisted mind that brought you Exte: Hair Extensions, Strange Circus, and Suicide Club comes this epic-length, sprawling masterpiece that should only be described as brilliant, should you even try to describe it at all. Indeed, Love Exposure touches on so many topics and veers in so many different directions that it’s difficult to know where to even begin any explanation of it. At its core, it’s a film about… well, love, and all the potential roadblocks that society can throw in its way.
Seventeen-year-old Yu is not your normal teenager. For starters, he’s searching for his “Maria,” the one girl that represents purity and will love Yu unconditionally, a value instilled in him at a young age by his now deceased mother. Yu’s father, Tetsu, didn’t take the death of his wife lightly; he turned to the clergy, became a Catholic priest, began an affair with a uncontrollable, manic woman, broke it off, lost his faith, and regained it again in the years since her passing. Tetsu begins forcing Yu into the confession booth, but having no impure thoughts, Yu has nothing to confess. However, their time in the confessional is the only quality time Yu and his father have together.
In order to please his increasingly demanding dad, Yu takes up with a gang of young perverts and masters the skill of upskirt photography. That really gets Tetsu’s attention! Yu takes great pleasure in revealing the sordid details of his peek-a-panty adventures and receiving the resultant nightly beatings. But Yu gets no sexual pleasure from his fledgling pornography career; he’s only doing it to have something to confess.
But one day, a miracle happens: Yu meets his “Maria.” Maria comes in the form of Yoko, a tough-as-nails chick in a schoolgirl outfit as she fights off a gang of would-be attackers. There are two big problems right at the start: Yoko hates men with a violent, scorching passion. Also, Yoko is herself smitten with a mysterious figure called Lady Scorpion, who just happens to be Yu in drag. All of this happens before the title card even appears onscreen and I haven’t even scratched the surface of the insanity that ensues.
The problem with selling a film like Love Exposure is convincing an audience that a four-hour film is worth sitting through when pictures less than half its length can feel like an eternity. But I dare you to just try the first 20 minutes and not be glued to your seat for the rest of the film’s duration. Sono’s characterization and execution are so pitch-perfect that the 3 hour and 57 minute runtime flies right by with nary a glance at your watch. A tour-de-force if there ever was one, the fact that Love Exposure manages to be so consistently entertaining, exhilarating, and thoroughly rewarding may be the film’s true miracle.
— Kevin Monahan