Koi no cumi
Directed by:
Shion SonoScreenplay:
Shion SonoCinematography:
Sōhei TanikawaCast:
Megumi Kagurazaka, Makoto Togashi, Miki Mizuno, Kanji Tsuda, 児嶋一哉, 我妻三輪子, Motoki Fukami, Ryūju Kobayashi, 内田慈, 岩松了, 五辻真吾, 町田マリー, Arata Yamanaka, Satoshi Nikaidô, AmiPlots(1)
Set just before the turn of the 21st century a grisly murder occurs in Maruyama-cho Shibuya the sordid love hotel district of Tokyo. During the police investigation the story interweaves with that of Izumi the wife of a famous romantic novelist whose life has become staid and repetitious. In an act of blatant sexual rebellion Izumi accepts a job as a naked model faking sex in front of the camera. Her sexual awakening takes a darker turn after she meets Mitsuko, - a college professor who moonlights as a prostitute and begins selling her body to the highest bidder while simultaneously maintaining the facade of a proper subservient Japanese housewife at home. Guilty of Romance: the film of punk provocateur and rising star of Japanese cinema, Sion Sono is the dramatic account of the lives of two women as they traverse a whirlwind of sex, madness and death. (Monster Pictures)
(more)Reviews (2)
Fucked up in a very annoying way. After what felt like three hours of boredom, I realised that I was only half-way through its 112 minute run and I thought I would faint. Cheap artsy controversy bait of the worst kind. I had to convince myself to give it that one star.
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Again a pure cinematic symphony of harmony and visual imagination. But still, when I've seen something from that Sion Sono, it doesn't have the wow effect like the first time. Still, I admit that no one else could possibly have made it similarly evocative (or simply piggishly explicit?) – or at least I can't think of anyone else at this moment. I'm not saying it's self-serving from start to finish, there's certainly an interpretation to be offered here along the lines of sexual frustration and how "anything can happen" when it comes to "awakening" and how far the initial desire for the occasional shag can go (plus, if the right people hire you, right...). It's a vastly different creation from Europe or America, which has its own rules and doesn't bother with any boundaries at all. I've always appreciated the breaking of established practices and conventions and the art of shocking or disgusting the viewer (whether through direct visual means or through psychological terror), but here I sometimes felt that it simply needed to shock at any cost at the expense of greater plot sophistication or greater overlap. Still, it's a kick in the ass. :)
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