Love Exposure (Japanese: ??????, Hepburn: Ai no mukidashi) is a 2008 Japanese comedy-drama art film written and directed by Sion Sono. The film gained a considerable amount of notoriety in film festivals around the world for its four-hour duration and themes including love, family, lust, religion and the art of upskirt photography. The first version was originally six hours long, but was trimmed at the request of the producers. Following its release, it won many awards and positive reviews. At the Berlin International Film Festival, it won the Caligari Film Award and the FIPRESCI Prize.
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Plot
The story follows Y? Honda (Takahiro Nishijima), a young teenage Catholic attempting to live his life in a faithful and orderly manner. His father, Tetsu, has become a devout Catholic priest following the death of Y?'s mother, and operates his own church. Y?'s father asks Y? to confess his sins, but Y? believes he is a good person, who has little to confess. At first he makes up sins, but his father sees right through him, and Y? sets out to commit real sins. Because of this, he falls in with a questionable crowd.
Y? is taught by his new friends to steal, fight, and take stealth photographs up women's skirts. Y? promptly becomes a skilled "panty shot" photographer. He is perceived as a pervert, but he is never aroused by these photographs.
After Y? loses a bet with his friends, he agrees to go into the city dressed as a woman and kiss a girl he likes. When they go into the city, Y? and his friends come across a young teenage girl named Y?ko (Hikari Mitsushima), who is surrounded by a group of thugs. Y?, still dressed as a woman, then helps Y?ko beat up the gang of thugs. Afterwards he kisses Y?ko and runs away. He falls in love with her - the first time he's been in love with a girl - but Y?ko falls for his disguise and develops feelings for his alter ego Sasori, or "Miss Scorpion".
Meanwhile, Y? is being followed by Aya Koike (Sakura Ando), a member of the cult "Zero Church", who has become infatuated with him after she catches him taking a picture of her panties. Aya, who we are shown was sexually abused to the point that she became psychotic and set out on a series of violent sprees, including shooting every student in her class and cutting her father's penis off, devises a plan to bring Y?'s entire family into the Zero Church, planning to gain the favour of Y?ko by masquerading as Sasori.
Aya manipulates those around Y?, and Y?ko and Y?'s family become caught up in the Zero Church. Y? desperately tries to free Y?ko from the Zero Church by kidnapping her, but fails to persuade her to leave, as she does not trust him and is convinced he is a pervert. Armed with a sword, Y? then breaks into the building where the Zero Church are present and once again tries to escape with Y?ko. Aya, who is present along with Y?'s family, fights back, but resorts to suicide by driving the sword through her stomach when she realizes Y?'s love for Y?ko.
Y? is taken to a mental hospital, where he has forgotten all of his past and convinced himself that he is really Sasori. Y?ko comes to visit, claiming that she now realises that she loves Y?, as he was the one always trying to save her. Y? cannot remember who she is, so security escort the hysterical Y?ko out of the building. Moments later, Y? remembers who Yoko is, and is aroused at the thought of her. He escapes from the hospital and runs after the car that is driving Y?ko away. The film concludes as Y? smashes open the car window and joins hands with Y?ko.
Cast
- Takahiro Nishijima as Y? Honda
- Hikari Mitsushima as Y?ko Ozawa
- Sakura Ando as Aya Koike
- Makiko Watanabe as Kaori Fujiwara
- Atsuro Watabe as Tetsu Honda
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes reports 90% approval for Love Exposure, and the film also holds a 78/100 on Metacritic based on 11 reviews.
In 2015, Jasper Sharp of the British Film Institute listed it as one of the 10 great Japanese films of the 21st century. Freelance film critic Kenji Fujishima also voted Love Exposure the ninth greatest film of the century in BBC's 2016 poll.
Screenwriter Max Landis has called it "the greatest film of all time".
Awards
The film received the following awards and nominations:
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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