aka: 愛のむきだし, Ai no mukidashi
Love Exposure - Japanese - January 31st 2009 - 237 Minutes
Yu's Mother - Mami Nakamura
Aya Friend 2 - Sou Hirosawa
Aya Koike's Father - Itsuji Itao
'Tag' Yugi - (Yu's Friend) - Hiroyuki Onoue
Master Lloyd - Koji Ohguchi
Ah yes the soundtrack, someone in marketing messed up. For those of you who have resorted to alcohol and major tranquilisers after spending fruitless hours searching for the soundtrack or information, your long search is at an end, there is no soundtrack. What is even more surprising and extremely annoying, it is virtually impossible to find a comprehensive artist and track listing anywhere on the entire Internet.
However before you take an overdose, I have after two days of intense investigation come up with the following tracks, these account for about 80% of the tracks featured in the movie.
1) - Symphony No7 in A Major Op 92. II Allegre - Beethoven
2) - O lord hear my prayer - by Taize Community - Album Songs of Taize 1
3) - Stay with Us - by Taize Community - Album Songs of Taize 1
4) - With the darkest night - by Taize Community - Album Songs of Taize 1
5) - Adoramus Te Domine - by Taize Community - Album Songs of Taize 1
6) - Hollow Me - by Yura Yura Teikoku - Album Kudo Desu (Theme Song)
7) - Beautiful (Album Version) - by Yura Yura Teikoku - Album Kudo Desu
8) - Bolero - Maurice Ravel
9) - Symphony No3 - Saint Saens
Love Exposure Movie Review
From the initial opening scenes to the final closure, the movie escorts you hand in hand, through a wonderfully bazaar journey which encompasses everything from misguided religious epiphany, cults, philosophy, unrequited love and obsessive devotion through to parental abuse, sexual mutilation, gore and voyeurism. The entire epic is beautifully accompanied throughout by an eclectic and original sountrack, a selection of choral, classical and modern pieces which provoke a curiously diverse range of emotional responses. Having since discovered the movie was originally a six hour epic edited to four hours at the request of the producers, all I can say is....bring on the six hour directors cut.
The acting was a variable hotchpotch of moments which seemed dependant upon the current genre and emotional objective of the story, to be honest though, it was of a little consequence to the outcome. The movie is like an ever changing canvas, it seems intent upon inciting an emotionally introspective response, based maybe upon the viewers shallow and preconditioned attitudes to sex, religion and love. The movie will certainly shock and amuse you, those unfamiliar with Asian cinema may be left wondering what just happened to them.
The movie is supposedly based around a true story which relates to a friend of director Sion Sono who was a photographer within a possibly seedy world, the photographers younger sister apparently became a involved in a religious cult from which she was later rescued. Sino Sono makes a cameo appearance in two of the scenes; the first is as one of the five interviewers for the porn company, where he is seated on the far left of the table. The second is in the exercise yard of the cult zero rehabilitation centre, the DVD features a one hour documentary about the making of of the movie which mentions these scenes.
Waste no more time reading my pathetic attempt at a review, go rent, buy or borrow a copy, invite everyone one around to watch it except maybe your parents, especially if they think hentai is punishable by the death penalty in most countries.
Screenshots were taken directly from the DVD which I certainly recommend, I have tried to avoid spoilers but there is certainly an element of this so be warned. The DVD contains a fascinating one hour documentary which I again certainly recommend and focuses on the making of the movie; it includes interviews on set with Sion Sono and various other members of the cast. Fans of the beautiful Hikari Mitsushima will be happy to know she features extensively throughout this one hour documentary.
Synopsis
Umm I guess I better make this a brief synopsis since my preamble is already a novel.
The movie opens with Yu's mother (Mami Nakamura) making a heartfelt request of Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) to find woman who looks like the virgin Mary, Yu agrees and shortly after his mother dies. Yu's father Tetsu (Atsuro Watabe ) later becomes a priest but succumbs to sexual temptation when he meets the hedonistic Saori (Makiko Watanabe). Saori soon becomes distracted and leaves Tetsu for another man sending Tetsu into an introspective spiral of shame and guilt. Tetsu consumed by guilt and obsessed by sin, psychologically projects his failings onto Yu, insisting he repent relentlessly for his sins making Yu's life a living hell. Yu who has lived a mostly virtuous life and loves his father and wishes only to please him, is driven to commit sins to appease his father’s relentless requests for meaningful confessional.
The movie genre changes as Yu sins spiral towards perversion and he is introduced to a group who have mastered the art of up-skirt photography. Wishing only to sin and please his father, Yu becomes a master of the Art, but at the same time remembers his promise to his mother to meet his Maria (Virgin Mary). He searches for his Maria as he indulges his new found voyeuristic talents. The movie drops into a 'miracle day' countdown, when Yu will meet his Maria. His Maria to be, the beautiful 'Yoko' (Hikari Mitsushima), has suffered a life of continuous abuse and hates men, but coincidentally has recently met and befriended Saori through her neglectful and abusive father.
Just prior to 'the miracle day' meeting and yet another movie genre change, we are introduced to the psychotic Aya Koike (Sakura Ando) who also has a history of physical abuse at the hands of her father. Aya is the leader of a dangerous religious cult called ‘The Zero Church’. Aya who identifies with Yu and is attracted to him, hatches a plan to manipulate Yu into meeting Yoko in a bid to manipulate the entire family into the Zero church. If things were not already bad enough for Yu, on miracle day, we find Yu dressed in drag as 'Miss Scorpion', having lost a bet to his friends over the best up-skirt photo. On Miracle day Yu meets his Maria (Yoko) and falls in love at first sight but Yoko falls for 'Miss Scorpion' while both are manipulated by Aya from the Zero church.
The movie focuses on Yu's relentless attempts at winning Yoko's heart, against all odds and Aya’s continued manipulation of the family to bring them into The Zero Church. To describe the movie further would be a crime against humanity, so I will end here. Another one of my favourite movies from Japan and one I hope one you enjoy as much as I did. The movie will wrestle your emotions into an eventual submission and leave you begging for more.
Highly Recommended
Cinematography - 9
Casting- 9
Acting- 8
Story - 10
Entertainment - 10
Total - 9.2
Screenshots from the Movie Love Exposure
4 comments:
Amazing work, especially on the soundtrack and with the screenshots... One question tough : what do you think is the music when Yoko recitate Corithians 13 on the beach ? This might be my favorite scene in the whole movie, and the music is definitely contributing to the whole thing.
Finally I found this!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOxOgm5jQ4&
thanks for the song list..really helped in searching for the song i wanted :)
The other Yura song is called Into The Next Night and was released as a single way back but doesnt feature on albums. Your best bet is YesAsia.com (where I got my copy from) or downloading the crappy quality version from the youtube video currently up.
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