Guilty of Romance Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Guilty of Romance Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 1, 2014

Japanese director Sion Sono's "Koi no tsumi" a.k.a. "Guilty of Romance" (2011) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films. The release features the shorter International Cut and longer Japanese Cut of the film. In Japanese, with imposed English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

"I'll be late tonight..."

Japanese director Sion Sono’s latest film, Guilty of Romance, is about three disillusioned women whose desire to love and be loved irreversibly damages their lives. The first woman is a housewife who does her best to serve and please her husband, a successful novelist. The second woman is an assistant professor at a prestigious university. The third woman is the elderly mother of the second woman.

The film begins with a gritty sequence in which a mutilated body is discovered in a hotel in a shady district of Tokyo. A young and handsome detective (Miki Mizuno, Bayside Shakedown II) begins an official investigation, which eventually collapses into a series of flashbacks that offer glimpses from the past and present of the three women.

The majority of the film focuses on the first woman, Izumi (Megumi Kagurazaka, Pride, Cold Fish), who fantasizes about making love to her young and successful husband but is routinely treated like a beautiful object unaware of its commercial value. Bored and seriously frustrated by the lack of interest from her busy husband, Izumi takes a part-time job in a supermarket, where eventually a stranger invites her to audition for a fashion photographer. Halfway through the shoot, however, she is forced to take part in a pornographic film, which proves to be a surprisingly liberating experience.

Soon after, Izumi meets Mitsuko (Makoto Togashi, Inugami, Memories of Matsuko), a prostitute at night and an assistant professor during the day, who encourages her to follow her instincts. Eventually, Izumi begins selling her body to strangers, though she decides when and who her clients will be. At home, she continues to be the type of wife her husband expects her to be.

The third woman appears later, after Izumi and Mitsuko’s friendship blossoms. She also leads a double life, though her motives are a lot more complicated than those of Izumi and Mitsuko.

The final film in Sono’s ‘Hate Trilogy’ is something of a contemporary noir picture that morphs into a horror thriller, which asks a variety of important social and moral questions but does not bother answering them. It is not as light-hearted but intense as Love Exposure and not as graphic as Cold Fish but it is just as unapologetic and in selected parts just as subversive.

A self-confessed "perverse fellow", Sono is a director who isn’t afraid to push buttons most directors intentionally ignore. He is also a poet, which is why even the most disturbing sequences in his films look and feel like extracts from beautiful poems.

This literal beauty, however, is lost in Guilty of Romance. Despite the sudden color explosions - the random splashes of pink, for instance, are a nice touch but not easy to link to desire, as obviously intended - the film looks unattractive. It also lacks identity. The wickedness and perverseness in it are neither meaningful nor disturbing enough (for a Sono film).

The detective story the film opens with is also underdeveloped, though its function is quite obvious. The occasional bits from the ongoing investigation that appear throughout the film feel totally random because none of the detailed descriptions they offer add anything substantial to the second story, where the lives of the three women become closely intertwined.

The cast is very good, but Togashi is clearly in a different league. Her character transformations are simply outstanding. The cynic she becomes at night, in particular, is very convincing.

Note: Unlike Eureka Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Guilty of Romance features two versions of the film: the shorter International Cut, which runs at approximately 114 minutes (01.53. 41), and the longer Japanese Cut, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and runs at approximately 144 minutes (02.25.20).

Guilty of Romance Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Sion Sono's Guilty of Romance arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

Please note that the screencaptures included with our review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1-19 are from the International Cut of Guilty of Romance.
2. Screencaptures #21-28 are from the Japanese Cut of Guilty of Romance.

The the appears to be using as a foundation the same source British distributors Eureka Entertainment accessed when they prepared their Blu-ray release of Guilty of Romance in 2011. The major difference between the two is that Olive Films have also included the longer Japanese Cut of the film, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Because the film was shot with the Red One MX camera, detail and clarity are consistently pleasing. As noted in our review of the UK release, however, the range of colors seen throughout the film is very unusual -- they seem to fluctuate as natural light does, causing blacks to appear a lot lighter than usual. Some of these fluctuations are certainly inherited -- as the film was shot digitally -- but it is difficult to tell if the film's current appearance is identical to that of its theatrical release. There are no traces of problematic digital adjustments. Generally speaking, the encoding is good, but there is some room for improvement (a few minor compression artifacts pop up during the darker sequences). (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Guilty of Romance Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The International Cut and the Japanese Cut of Guilty of Romance can be viewed with Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks. For the record, Olive Films have provided imposed English subtitles for each cut of the film. (They cannot be turned of from the main menu or via the remote control).

The film is complimented by a very good classical score, which effectively transforms a number of the graphic sequences. Depth and clarity are very good, but the film's overall sound design is rather modest (there are no audio effects that are likely to impress viewers who appreciate the aggressive lossless tracks found on releases of recent blockbusters). The dialog is clean, stable, and easy to follow. The English translation is very good.

Guilty of Romance Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplemental features on this Blu-ray release.

Guilty of Romance Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Unlike Eureka Entertainment's release, Olive Films' release of Sion Sono's Guilty of Romance features the longer Japanese Cut of the film, which was initially screened at the Cannes Film Festival. The additional footage does not alter significantly the tone and atmosphere of the film, rather it expands the narrative in different areas (there are extended sequences as well as new footage). The film asks some important social and moral questions, but it is not as engaging as the other two films in the 'Hate Trilogy', Love Exposure and Cold Fish. Still, I think that if one appreciates the Japanese auteur's work, this film is definitely worth owning as part of the trilogy. RECOMMENDED.