(A.k.a. KOI NO TSUMI; CRIME OF ROMANCE)
It’s late one evening in 1999, and detective Yoshida (Miki Mizuno) is called to the scene of a grisly crime in one of Japan’s notorious "love hotels". There, the remains of two females – presumed hookers – have been decapitated and positioned with the heads of mannequins. In the case of one of them, her genitals have been gouged out. Yoshida’s task is to determine the victims’ identities and, ultimately, deduce what the Devil happened.
This leads us into a flashback storyline that takes up most of the film: the story of invisible wife Izumi (Megumi Kagurazaka). She’s married to a famous author of romantic fiction, Yukio, but has become jaded by the fact that she receives no attention, let alone affection, at home.
Izumi yearns to be noticed, even when she gets a part-time job selling sausages at a local delicatessen. But even the punters ignore her demure, downtrodden sales pitch – much to her manager’s chagrin.
That is, until one afternoon when the sexy Eri saunters up to her in the deli and offers her a job as a model. Initially coy, especially when the portfolio Eri shows her includes nude photographs, Izumi eventually agrees to meeting up after being cast aside one too many times by her disinterested spouse.
Her first photo shoot is an awkward one that ends with her simulating sex for the camera with a male co-star. She likes it enough however, and the $500 pay cheque that comes with it, to return for more.
Gaining confidence in herself, Izumi revels in her newfound sexuality. She still finds her husband unapproachable, but enjoys seducing strangers on the street. However, one encounter she soon regrets is an evening with a grinning charmer who fancies himself as a street magician. He takes her to a love hotel while speaking of finding solace in a "castle" (this word was sprayed on the walls of the opening crime scene), and proceeds to bonk her brains out while showering her in balls of pink paint. Afterwards, he refuses to let her leave and rapes her while her husband listens on the other end of her mobile telephone.
It’s an event Izumi inexplicably manages to cover from Yukio – presumably due to his lack of caring – and she realises that, secretly, she enjoyed the experience. So much so, that she wilfully allows new acquaintance, lecturer-by-day-prostitute-by-night Mitsuko (Makoto Togashi) to take her under her wing.
Before long, Izumi seems to be spending an alarming amount of time with Mitsuko (despite maintaining her facade as the loyal housewife) and becomes embroiled in a life of illicit sex and deception.
Izumi should’ve trusted her gut instincts though, when Mitsuko introduces her to a pimp that she works for part-time – the street magician from earlier ...
Sion Sono has proven himself to be one of this Century’s most vital genre filmmakers, with films such as THE SUICIDE CLUB, NORIKO’S DINNER TABLE and EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS to his credit. More recently, his incredible double-whammy of LOVE EXPOSURE and COLD FISH have wowed critics and won awards the world over. The latter two films also formed the first two segments of Sono’s "hate" trilogy, with ROMANCE being the concluding chapter.
So, expectations are understandably high for this latest offering.
Fear not, it’s another fantastic meditation on universal themes through very Japanese sensibilities, this time taking in the need for recognition and connection, and the importance of words – what they mean, how they’re heard, how they’re interpreted and so on (it’s a good job the English subtitle translation is spot on).
Make no mistake, beyond the copious nudity and standard violence, Sono is a social commentator still in tune with the raw poetry that was his craft prior to becoming a filmmaker. As exploitative as it often is, to classify ROMANCE merely as exploitation is doing a huge disservice to its formidable intelligence.
Stylistically, it’s not hard to tell this is a Sono film. The cinematography is dark and stunning, with careful compositions benefitting from superb framing and delicately saturated colour schemes. Speaking of colour, there are some vivid uses of colours such as pink and red, signifying passion, as well as black to crucially project the downward spiral that Izumi’s lust has set her upon.
Performances are strong throughout, with GUILTY OF ROMANCE feeling better for a more sombre tone than its predecessors. There is very little in the way of light relief here: a happy ending is unlikely right from the start, despite undercurrents of romanticism rearing their head on occasion. Every character is fatally flawed – even Mistuko’s passive-aggressive mother, who laughs wistfully while branding her daughter a whore during mealtimes.
Split into five chapters, the film plays like a book with its flitting from present tense to past; the murder mystery framing device soon threatens to become an afterthought, before it returns with more presence in the final forty minutes. While mentioning time, it’s worth noting that ROMANCE is Sono’s shortest film in a while – 124 minutes in length – which helps it also become his most accessible.
That is, if viewers can get past the aforementioned sex and nudity. There is a lot on offer and, while the sex is never overtly explicit, it does get quite rough at times. But never does it seem gratuitous: Sono has things to say, and is passionate about the points he feels you NEED to hear. And he makes sure he is heard, along with a sumptuous soundtrack of classical music.
Whether you buy the mystique around the nature of the "castle" (a little twee, and a little reminiscent of another famous Asian film in its reveal), and whether you agree with Sono’s script dictating that men only desire women when they can fuck them for free ... well, it hardly matters. This is an extraordinarily well-made, thought-provoking film that remains unique despite occasionally nodding towards the likes of Argento (colour schemes and odd camerawork flourishes), BELLE DU JOUR and IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES. There’s also a heavy whiff of Roman porno throughout – hardly surprising, as the film was co-produced by the fabled Nikkatsu company.
It does lag a tad in the middle, as Mitsuko and Izumi bond, but by the end of the film you realise how these scenes were equally as necessary as everything else, and that there is not one minute of filler in Sono’s latest cerebral, visceral and highly stylish masterpiece.
The film is enjoying a limited theatrical run in the UK at present. It will be released onto DVD and blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment on 28 November 2011.
Review by Stu Willis
| Released by Eureka Entertainment |