Love & Peace (2015)

Ever watch a film that suddenly reveals itself to be a Christmas movie?  When I say, "suddenly reveals itself" I mean that sincerely, because it comes as such a sudden surprise in Sion Sono's thoroughly wacky and incredibly endearing Love & Peace that, much like an anime character who is thoroughly confused, I had to blink a few times before I realized what had just happened.

Centered on a failed rock and roller turned salaryman, Ryoichi (Hiroki Hasegawa), the theme of Love & Peace quite literally is the summation of it's title.  Following a bizarre series of events Ryoichi, flushes his pet turtle, Pikadon (probably the only friend he has) down the toilet.  Pikadon winds up in the strange home of a mysterious vagrant named, Pa (Toshiyuki Nishida), and a whole gaggle of abandoned toys that Pa has somehow brought to life.  After mistakenly giving Pikadon a wish candy, Pikadon's love for his master grants his master's wishes to become reality with some unintended consequences.

This might be the most accessible of Sono's career while still manages to contain the delightfully bizarre stylistic elements that keep it true to his ouvre.  It's story teaches one of optimism and hope despite self-induced terror and an apathetic society where unconditional love is a virtue above all things.  Beyond it's surface of zany talking toys and a turtle that slowly becomes a kaiju is a tenderness and faith in the goodness inherent in humanity.  It's a subtext that has slowly been poking it's way up in his films since Love Exposure.

None of this, of course, marks any major change in the underlying themes of Sono's work.  If anything, he casts his ire upon an apathetic youth society that worships pop idols but doesn't remember the atomic bomb.  With wit and a devious sense of humor he makes the discarded his heroes and the consumers his villains.  In a fashion almost typical of his films his characters are all over the top, but each little element comes together so well that it hardly even matters.  Definitely worth a watch for the intrigue alone.

"If There Is No Love, Make Him Pay For It"

I love Japanese Cinema. If it weren't for Japanese Cinema, I doubt I would've gotten interested in working in the film industry. That said, my favorite of the contemporary Japanese Directors is, without a doubt, Sion Sono. Most people know him, if they're aware of him at all, for The Suicide Club a bizarre trip into psychological horror.  Over the past couple of years he's been making his films at break neck speed, producing a minimum of 2 films a year, which makes this review almost dated.  Luckily, the film I'm going to talk about is relatively hard to find in America, so in that way this review will hopefully be relevant.

Based on true events, Guilty of Romance is the third and final part of Sono's "Hatred Trilogy" which began with his 237 minute epic, Love Exposure.  The film opens with a blurb about Love Hotels in Shibuya (a district in Tokyo) and prostitutes who frequent them.  It then launches into a mystery about a murder in which a parts of a body were found fused with the plastic arms, legs, and head of a mannequin.  Sono tells us his story via past and present tense revealing the past tense details in time with their discovery by the present tense detectives.  What unfolds is a sort of negative hero's journey in which the lead character Izumi Kikuchi (fantastically performed by Megumi Kagurazaka), a bored housewife living in a very chaste relationship with her husband is drawn into a seedy world of depravity.  Ironically, it is this depraved world that allows her to express herself fully, putting somewhat of a skip in her step.  Until...

Everything starts spiraling out of control.  Izumi is mentored by another woman Mitsuko Ozawa (Makoto Togashi.) Literature Lecturer by day, prostitute by night, Mitsuko teaches Izumi methods to take control and further gain confidence in herself.  Mitsuko is an enigmatic force with questionable motives that will keep the viewer guessing up until the end of the film.

Sono has become a master of finding poetry in the dumpster.  Here we have a story about the rejection of decency and the headlong dive into the obscene and yet there is a sense of tragic beauty in his characters.  Are they completely to blame for their present condition or are the norms of society so strangely defined that they are pushed in one direction or another?  Sono doesn't entirely answer this question.  While at moments it feels like he is taking one side or another, it's almost always a red herring.  He leaves it up to the audience to decide, rather than try to instill some sort of ideology.

The one moment where it seems like Sono is making a statement is at a bizarre dining table scene.  The scene speaks loads about societal class division and he advertantly critiques the way of underhanded politeness in Japanese society.  While his seem is very on the head, full of frank dialogue, the characters are all smiles and laughs.  In many of Yasujiro Ozu's films, such scenes do NOT contain the frank stabbing dialogue.  Instead, while a character may be chastising or criticizing another, they use polite language in a most passive aggressive manner.

Upon completing the film, I discovered that the cut I watched is also 30 minutes shorter than the Japanese release.  This, of course, has me curious and I will definitely seek out the longer cut to compare the differences.  That is not to say, that I didn't enjoy the international cut, but I am a stickler for watching the absolute closest thing to a true "Directors Cut."  Regardless, Guilty of Romance, may very well be considered a poem of depravity.  As beautiful as it is disgusting, Sono has once more tapped into the not so hidden dark side of an overtly polite and clean society.