Synopsis
The story of a teenage boy named Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while working as an "up-skirt" photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing – which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian – dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with the guilt that's a legacy of his Catholic upbringing.
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Cast
- Takahiro NishijimaYu
- Hikari MitsushimaYoko
- Sakura AndoKoike
- Makiko WatanabeKaori
- Atsuro WatabeTetsu Tsunoda
- Yutaka ShimizuYuji
- Hiroyuki OnoueTakahiro
- Tasuku NagaokaSenior
- Sow HirosawaKumi
- Yūko GenkakuKeiko
Recommendations
- 100
San Francisco Chronicle
This intricately plotted Japanese epic has so many twists and turns - not to mention bizarre characters with even more bizarre backstories - that the time will fly by. As the old cliche goes, you will not have another moviegoing experience quite like this one all year. - 100
The Telegraph
The movie’s invigorating discourse on sin, lust and love is propelled by a kind of Dionysian glee which keeps it airborne almost constantly. - 90
The New York Times
Merging the sacred and the profane, the bloody and the batty, Love Exposure tunnels into serious topics - warped parenting, sexual intolerance and the way religious cults enslave damaged souls - with a hilariously blasphemous shovel. - 88
Slant Magazine
Japanese poet and cult filmmaker Shion Sono defines himself as an anti-establishment artist partly out of cynicism and partly thanks to his romantic concept of libertarianism. - 80
Empire
Complicated and long but deftly handled adventure/caper/satire that ends up being thoroughly entertaining - 80
Los Angeles Times
The film's maximalist storytelling, both expansive and precise, snatching specific emotions from its torrid swirl, is best exemplified by the fact that the title card doesn't appear until an hour in. - 80
Time Out London
These dysfunctional, hypersensitive Japanese teens and their quest for erotic and spiritual enlightenment make for a swooning, often riotously funny melodrama charged with a refreshingly perverse undertow. - 60
Time Out
If you see only one Sono film, check out this flick; you will have then seen them all.
