Peaceful Stoner’s review published on Letterboxd:
Sian Sono’s Love Exposure is a 4 hour journey. But my God did those 4 hours fly away like dust in a whirlwind but never failing to leave a strong impression, memories and the emotions accrued throughout, embossed in my heart.
This film had me captivated right from the start and did not let go until it was finished. And when it did, I did not want it to finish and had such an urge for it go on. Such was its magnetic enigma and such was the innumerable themes handled. It deals with the traumas of childhood, the effects of bad parenthood, yearning to meet the love of your life, faith in God, faith in love, perversity, revenge, madness, people’s wrongful belief in phony cults which brainwash them into machines and ultimately which one of the lofty emotions amongst faith, hope and love is the greatest.
This is my first Sono feature. He is certainly one of a kind who had the balls to put such a complicated, controversial concept and narrative on to screen which could have easily back fired. Every single theme in the film can be picked out and could be easily furnished into a separate full-fledged film. Love Exposure compresses all those into a single on screen experience and that is the exact reason why even such a long run time seemed not enough. But in the end everything falls into place beautifully and my heart was over flowing with emotions by the union of love after crossing and hurdling over so many obstacles, pain, frustration, tribulations, jealousy and their contrasting believes and ideologies.
The film shows how belief in God is not something of an easy way out to soothe the pain of losing a loved one. It clearly subtexts that Faith and Priesthood are only for those ultra-determined people who , come what may, can place God and his Love over all their petty desires. Those who do not belong to this group and jump the gun thinking it would bring them peace are doomed for life as they cannot perform their duties to their fullest conscience and also cannot give in to their temptations which if they do would bring unbearable embarrassment and inescapable shame.
Bad parenthood and different types of it are also analysed in detail by Sono. This film is a vivid description of how parents can be hypocritical of their children and want them to be and do what they could not. Yu, the son of the priest, bears the brunt here. He is subjected to a different form of cruelty from others childhood traumas depicted on screen and seen in reality. His father focusses all his pent up frustration of not being to uphold himself and his chosen path on his only son. His way of dealing with this situation is not in the least bit positive or encouraging. The father crosses the line and it is almost like, when I could not be a good person and remain loyal to my oath and faith how could you be? This sort of obsession pushes the poor boy to the edge and also over. He takes on a persona which he would never have dreamed of but he does it to maintain the bond with his Father and to satisfy him. What starts off as a mere hobby to keep his father contented sadly develops into a lifestyle and changes him entirely.
Yu’s character paves way for Sono to speak about the distinction between perversity and true heart felt love which runs throughout the film. Sono somehow manages to constantly undercurrent Love even through all the craving. He does it so convincingly that it almost blurs the line between the two. This film so explicitly portrays the inevitable truth that even though our lives are in our hands the way in which we are brought up during those tender young years plays the biggest role into what we eventually turn into.
The female leads also have painful memories of their past. A deeply affected teenage afflicted by an incestuous, vile natured and lust filled father and another scarred beyond any help by a madly obsessed, stone hearted, corporally punishing parent which has forever doomed their perception of the opposite sex and their future.
But the real crux of the film is when these three characters collide against each other and how the eventual outcome is arrived at. It is pretty difficult to criss-cross the narrative in a short run time, but here Sono jumps from one story line to another, the past and the present, in chapter wise narrative so effortlessly and unnoticeably that we are always under his grip. Non linearity in such a long film is almost unthinkable and something most would not dare to do. The film looks and sounds brilliant with some slick editing and characteristic zoom ups. It has a splendid score which blends together classical and pop music bringing out the essence of every scene in such marvelous fashion. And also there is unequivocal, unparalleled love shown for Kurt Cobain which totally won me over. Kurt Cobain is as cool as Jesus Christ says this film and I cannot deny that. Yes I am prejudiced but I love that line.
This film made me crack up with laughter with its absurdity, made feel sad and gooey inside, made me wide eyed with the Tarantino style splashy, squirting bloody gore, wowed me with its reality defying over the top-ness, make my blood boil with anger, touched my heart and sometimes broke it. But the ending, I cannot stop raving about it. It made my heart glow. A truly remarkable and the most perfect way to end such a film.
Faith, Hope and Love are three most important emotions for a human being to survive in this world. Faith and Hope cannot stem without the existence of Love and hence Love is the greatest and the most powerful emotion of all. That is my ideology and also the basest of dogmas in which Sian Sono’s Love Exposure is rooted. I love this film for that and a thousand more reasons. This film is magnificent. Truly a modern masterpiece.
