Archive - 10th Five Flavours Film Festival

Love Exposure

Ai no mukidashi
Japan 2008, 237’
subtitles: Polish and English
director: Sion Sono
screenplay: Sion Sono
cinematography: Sōhei Tanikawa
editing: Junichi Itō
music: Tomohide Harada, Dalparan
cast: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Sakura Ando, Atsuro Watabe, Makiko Watanabe
producer: Haruo Umekawa
production: Omega Project
language: Japanese
colouration: colour

Awards and festivals

Berlin IFF 2009 - Caligari Film Award, FIPRESCI Prize; Fantasia FF 2009 - Best Asian Film, Jury Prize for Best Female Performance, Most Innovative Film, Special Jury Prize; Hochi Film Awards 2009 - Best New Talent; Kinema Junpo Awards 2010 - Best Supporting Actress, Best New Actor; Mainichi Film Concours 2010 - Best Director, Sponichi Grand Prize New Talent Award; Puchon International Fantastic FF 2009 - NETPAC Award Special Mention; Tokyo FILMeX 2008 - Audience Award; Barcelona Asian FF 2009 - Audience Award; New York Asian FF 2009 - Grand Jury Prize; Hong Kong IFF 2009; Karlovy Vary IFF 2009

Film description

Yu is a high school student facing the typical problems of adolescence: timidity, the changing body... and his father, a strict pastor, his unfulfilled lover, a gang collecting pictures of female underwear, a menacing sect with an aggressive leader, also a high school student, and the beloved Yoko, a talented karateka and a Holy Mary lookalike. To conquer her heart, the boy will have to put on a woman's coat and a wig, but that's only the beginning of his problems.

"Love Exposure" is a tour de force of one of the most creative contemporary directors. This stunning clash of pop culture references, crazy genre cliches, psychoanalytic connotations, and a creative interpretation of contemporary problems of the Japanese society is a real plot bomb. Sono shows his extraordinary erudition, going beyond cultural circles – the aesthetic of manga meets Corinthians and a Beethoven symphony, and quotes from John Woo with referenced to the Japanese exploitation cinema of the 70s. The four hour long visual madness combines the lyricism of "Romeo and Juliet" with the sacrilegiousness of Buñuel and Tarantino's aesthetic sensibility. Explosive experiences guaranteed.

Jagoda Murczyńska

Sion Sono

Born in 1961. Poet, performer, filmmaker, painter, musician. One of the most influential among independent Japanese filmmakers, regularly invited to international festivals, renown for his radical artistic vision, the ability to combine shocking form with apt social critique, and a non-compromising film language.

Selected filmography:

1985 Jestem Sion Sono! / Ore wa Sono Sion da!! / I Am Sion Sono!

2001 Jisatsu sakuru / Suicide Club

2008 Miłość obnażona / Ai no mukidashi / Love Exposure

2010 Tsumetai nettaigyo / Cold Fish

2013 Zabawmy się w piekle / Jigoku de naze warui / Why Don't You Play in Hell

2014 Tokyo Toraibu / Tokyo Tribe

2015 Love & Peace

2015 Shinjuku suwan / Shinjuku Swan Kabukicho Skauto Sabaibaru

2015 Riaru onigokko / Tag

2015 Gwiazda szeptów / Hiso hiso boshi / The Whispering Star

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