Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi)

A four hours extravagant epic of love and other things in between, here’s a mini-review of Love Exposure!

Who could have makes a plot about peek-a-panty, cult religion, transgender, psychopath, cramped into an almost 4 hours film, didn’t get any ridiculous ? Sion Sono could. Love Exposure is just groundbreaking in any way possible. shit, this is the fastest 4 hours of my life in such a long time. The pace is never got slow, the story always have a quick turn. And while i understand that this film is not for everyone ( Panties everywhere, extreme violence, controversial religious theme arc. And mind a lot of “This Film Was Rubbish” and “Worst Movie Ever” in its IMDB forum page), but i just feels the urge to say that, EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS FILM. At least once in their lifetime.

Do i need to write the exact synopsis here? No. The more clueless you are about this film, the more satisfied (or engrossed. It depends on your taste in films) you’d be. Just like me. I’m going blind into this film.Knowing only its running time and several reviews mentioning how “unique” this film really is. And the result is.. WHOA.

And so 4 hours passed like  Michael Schumacher in his prime. Love Exposure turns out into a very unique experience. With a feeling of surrealism of manga-like world, effective use of music (Love how Sono use Ravel’s Bolero constantly as a background music) , and a mind-blowing and horrifying scene ( There’s a scene that just would make Lars von Trier’s Antichrist looks like a donald duck movie), this is, in my opinion, one of the best Japanese, heck, one of the best film that i’ve ever seen. A pure 5 stars. Too bad, this was like a fluke for Sono, since his next film after this couldn’t got at least near the brilliance of this one.