Time to break out those All-Region DVD players! Sion Sono's most recent get's a British release and a New York
screening thanks to the Japan Society this summer/fall! Near-impossible for me to give a proper synopsis of this
one, it's truly a cinema experience like no other. Which I realize, immediately sounds hyperbolic, but "Love
Exposure" is that rare film that lives up to the 'incomparable' tag. Part Boy/Girl love story, part Catholic inverse
-moral play ("I Need To Sin!"), part Tokyo Yakuza/ Japanese Religious Cult underworld tale, part modern-day
(Panty-Shot) Grail Quest, part an exploration of the extremities and diversity of the definitions of Love itself (in
all it's forms, both 'healthy' and NOT). As the film progresses and all these elements converge ...and they do,
it's in ways initially comedic and pulp-like (think Manga, Japanese Anime High School dramas) and later as
a EPIC and deeply, deeply effecting Tragedy. ...But even all of that doesn't really do "Love Exposure" justice.
Review from the January issue of Sight & Sound: "It's almost impossible to imagine that a over four-hour-long film
featuring castration, transvestism, religious cults and catholic guilt complexes originating from Japan could be so
darn passionate, so uplifting, so edge-of-the-seat engaging and entertaining. A one-off, indescribable experience"
--Jasper Sharp (Midnight Eye), 2010.
Link to official "Love Exposure" site
Link to Japan Society's "Love Exposure" New York Screening
Link to Third Window Films UK release of "Love Exposure"
