After an acclaimed one-week run at Cinefamily in Los Angeles, CA, Olive Films recently announced the theatrical release of the already-legendary Japanese film Love Exposure (2008), scheduled to open on September 1, 2011 in New York City 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!
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
