Long been a favorite around these parts, Sion Sono's gonzo epic on love and madness, is finally getting a proper theatrical run in New York City thanks to Olive Films, which means... press release!
New York, NY - August 8, 2011 - After an acclaimed one-week run at
Cinefamily in Los Angeles, CA, Olive Films is proud to announce the New
York theatrical release of the already-legendary Japanese film Love
Exposure (2008), finally scheduled to open on September 2 at Cinema
Village.
This bombastic feature film (clocking at a gargantuan
237 minutes) from director Sion Sono (Suicide Club, Cold Fish)
ambitiously tackles life's biggest themes: love, death, sex, revenge,
religion and up-skirt panty photography. Winner of dozens of
international awards (including the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2009 Berlin
Film Festival), Love Exposure tells the story of Yu (Takahiro
Nishijima), a teenager driven to a life of sin, romantic extremes and
sexual perversions by his father's desperate conversion into extreme
Catholicism.
After losing his wife and a maniac-depressive lover,
Tetsu (Atsurô Watabe) becomes obsessed with his son's spiritual (and
certainly sinful) life. Pressed to confess a couple of dark crimes (and
yet, as innocent as they come),Yu hits Tokyo's underground in search of a
perfect sin - and in the process, joins a gang of teenagers training in
the 'art' of panchira (clandestine panty snapshots!).
On his
search for the perfect photo, Yu harasses enough girls to shock his
all-forgiving, bible-thumping father, who finally behaves as such and
punishes his 'perverse' son. Happy to have his father's attention, Yu
decides to fully dedicate himself to the art of panchira - and he
quickly becomes one of the very best. Yet, when Yun falls for the
Virgin-Mary-like Yoko, he also gets involved with Zero Church, a fanatic
religious group with a bizarre agenda of their own.
What comes
next is a mix of apocalyptic fervor, pornographic empowerment and
girl-power madness, in a film that unfolds into a mosaic of ecstatic
narratives while remaining committed (and surprisingly focused) to its
romantic main plot.
"At its heart," wrote film critic Hayden
Maxwell, "Sion Sono's film is a demented romance movie where the
adversities love has to face are Catholic guilt, Japanese perversion,
mistaken identity, a cult, and mental illness." Not bad for a four-hour
flick!