Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Love Exposure Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 2, 2012

Japanese director Sion Sono's "Ai no mukidashi" a.k.a "Love Exposure" (2008) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films. The supplemental features on this release include original Japanese trailer; lengthy making of featurette; deleted and extra scenes; extra footage; and more. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Bound by religion

The film begins with a long confession. A young and skinny boy, Yu (Takahiro Nishijima), quietly explains how his life turned into hell after his mother died and his father, Tetsu (Atsuro Watabe), became a Christian priest. For a while, Yu apparently tried to be a good son, and even welcomed with open arms Kaori (Makiko Watanabe), his father’s bizarre girlfriend. But then Kaori found herself a younger lover and his brokenhearted father decided to punish him. Yu never complained because he understood that this was a difficult time for his father. But the more time passed by, the more abusive Yu’s father became. He was good to Yu only when he was confessing his sins. And this is why eventually Yu became a professional sinner - to have enough sins to confess and keep his father happy. What is a professional sinner? It is someone versed in the fine art of taking pictures of teenage girls’ panties.

While working hard to keep his father happy, Yu met Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima), a lovely girl who looked exactly like the girl Mother Mary once told him he would fall in love with. Mother Mary was right because Yu felt the love, immediately, in his pants – Yoko was the first girl to give Yu an erection. Too bad he was dressed in drag and Yoko fell in love with his feminine side, the mysterious "Miss Scorpion".

Yoko's confession comes right after Yu's. Hers is about broken dreams, her hatred for men, and her mother, Kaori. She once ran away from Kaori but came back, willing to give their relationship a second chance. Around the same time, Kaori met a handsome priest and told Yoko that she wanted to marry him. Yoko did not care. It was Kaori’s life and she could do with it anything she wanted. Yoko became upset only when Kaori told her that lesbians were perverts. She had already fallen in love with “Miss Scorpion” but was definitely not a pervert.

Another girl, Koike (Sakura Ando), also makes a confession. Years ago, Koike castrated her abusive father, who was involved with a strange church called Zero. Though she got rid of him, he corrupted her soul and she became evil.

Yu, Yoko, and Koike’s lives become closely intertwined after Koike pretends to be “Miss Scorpion” and tells Yu that she knows about his sins/pictures, Yoko kisses her, and Yu becomes jealous.

This nearly 240-minute long film is like a very long and colorful dream that makes perfect sense for as long as it lasts. It borrows heavily from a variety of different genres but has a unique identity. It also has a terrific sense of humor that should appeal to anyone that likes the edginess of Luis Bunuel’s work and absurdity of Lech Majewski’s films.

The majority of Sion Sono’s films typically make an immediate impression, with the best ones usually assaulting the senses in a very particular way. Love Exposure does not have any of this directness. It works on multiple levels and with multiple themes that constantly overlap, which is why the film will likely resonate differently with different viewers. However, the effective satire the film overflows with should be easily appreciated by viewers from every age group.

The three leads are very good. Despite a number of quite bizarre sequences it never feels like they are overplaying their parts. Hikari Mitsushima, who recently appeared in Takashi Miike’s Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, is particularly good. With the right script, she could very soon be an international star.

If the film has a weakness, it is probably the repeated use of excerpts from Ravel’s Bolero and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

Note: In 2009, Love Exposure won Caligari Film Award (Sion Sono) and FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Love Exposure Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Sion Sono's Love Exposure arrive son Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films.

Generally speaking, Love Exposure looks quite good on Blu-ray. Detail is mostly very pleasing, especially during the daylight sequences where natural light is in abundance, while the larger panoramic shots boast decent depth. During some of the memory flashbacks brightness levels appear slightly elevated, but overall the film has a solid look. The color scheme favors predominantly warm and natural colors. Some extremely light sharpening occasionally creeps in but during normal playback it is never distracting. There are, however, minor compression artifacts that pop up a few times. There is one sequence - where the girl castrates her father - where I also noticed light aliasing. Despite these minor issues, however, having seen the R1 DVD release of Love Exposure, I can confidently state that the film looks far more appealing in high-definition, with both clarity and detail clearly being far superior. All in all, though not flawless, Third Window Films' Blu-ray release of Love Exposure is indeed very easy to recommend. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Love Exposure Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. For the record, Third Window Films have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The lossless track opens up the film surprisingly well. While it certainly does not match the intensity of recent big-budget action productions, it has a very good range of nuanced dynamics that enhance the action scenes as well as some of the more intimate sequences where Ravel and Beethoven's music is heard. The contemporary soundtrack also gets a decent boost. There are no balance issues. The dialog is clean, stable, and easy to follow. There are no dropouts, pops, or high-frequency distortions.

Love Exposure Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: All of the supplemental features are placed on a separate DVD. They are encoded in NTSC (480/60i).

• Making of - this very long featurette contains an interview with director Sion Sono in which he explains what inspired him to shoot Love Exposure, raw footage from the shooting of various key sequences from the film, short comments from cast and crew members, etc. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles. (59 min).

• Trailer - original Japanese trailer for Love Exposure. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles. (2 min).

• The Prince of Tousatsu: Deleted Scenes - a collection of deleted scenes with short introduction by director Sion Sono. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles. (29 min).

• Sakura Ando: Extra Scenes - additional scenes. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles. (10 min).

• Zero Church Speech - this nearly 7-minute long scene with Shinji Miyadai did not make it to the final version of Love Exposure. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles. (8 min).

• Hikari Mitsushima Extended Scenes - extended scenes with the young actress seen dancing, fighting, getting a tattoo, wandering around and fantasizing about Miss Scorpion. Music only. (5 min).

• Trailers - trailers for other Third Window Films releases.

Love Exposure Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you wish to see something very, very different, place your orders for Sion Sono's Love Exposure now. These types of films do not come around too often because there simply aren't too many directors out there that are even capable of imagining what Sion Sono shoots with his camera. Bizarre, wild, funny and beautiful, Love Exposure is the perfect film for minds that can't stand cliches. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.