Love Exposure (2008)

July 4, 2024 5:39 PM

Sion Sono's 4 hour long genderqueer religious trauma epic finally makes it to metafilter! From imdb: Three emotionally abused people from the fringes of society get locked in a convoluted love triangle. Yuu, a Catholic boy searching for true love ends up taking erotic photographs of women in public until he discovers Yoko, whom he sees as his Virgin Mary. Yoko, an antifamily, misandristic girl finds that her foster mother will be marrying Yuu's father. Koike, an "original sinner", coordinates a plan to convert Yuu's family to her cult. Under her careful direction, their lives come crashing together in one fateful street fight.
posted by _earwig_ (3 comments total)

haven't sat down and watched the whole thing in a while but its really good and has an incredibly plausible trans interpretation. paraphrasing: "i am a failure and a pervert boy. i'm obsessed with an unattainable ideal of femininity (virgin mary) but can't get aroused by women. i can't approach the girl i like without adopting a glamorous female alter ego (based on female prisoner scorpion!!!!) that is allowed to receive love. oh.. i felt real arousal for the first time after having a lesbian kiss as my alter ego.."
idk maybe im insane
probably a lot of this comes from the film's frank but somewhat melodramatic approach to sexuality.. a storyline about perversion, sin, and complicated family dynamics is gay catnip even without the gender angle lol.
looooovvved the gyaru stepmother character. everyone gets at least one moment of surprising grace and depth

sion sono is a complicated and often shitty guy but i love his style?
the disgustingly long runtime is offputting but honestly if u watch prestige tv ur already prepared to invest ur time in something that takes 8+ hours to tell a complete story and drags in the middle..
posted by _earwig_ at 5:53 PM on July 4, 2024

love exposure is also, bafflingly, the name of a restaurant on auckland's dominion road. no word yet on whether the restaurant also has transgender themes but probably not..
posted by _earwig_ at 5:57 PM on July 4, 2024

This is almost my favourite movie of all time and absolutely my favourite romantic comedy (if that even applies to something so complex and shape-shifting) - my partner and I rewatch about once a year and it just gets better and better each time.

People nervous about the long runtime shouldn't worry - it just races by, sometimes feels like it's too short even!
posted by remembrancer at 6:29 AM on July 5, 2024