ffoecm the dickens

[paulofilmo]

Hello!

Thirdly, a link to the collection of our weekly engluttening:

Favorite Film of Every Criticker Member


The first film will be Ai no mukidashi (2008) (Love Exposure), a gentle, light-hearted coming-of-age romp with subtle religious undertones.

[AFlickering]

a gentle, light-hearted coming-of-age romp with subtle religious undertones.

lol, not exactly...

it's wonderful though.

[CMonster]

Anybody know a good place to watch this? It isn't on Netflix or any other place I generally go to watch movies.

[ShogunRua]

Anybody know a good place to watch this? It isn't on Netflix or any other place I generally go to watch movies.

I remember downloading it from a torrent site back in the day. Cinemageddon has it too, of course.

[Bojangles]

Reminiscent of Natural Born Killers in tone and style, except that content-wise it's satirizing religion rather than media. That's how my uncultured star-spangled ass saw it: Natural Born Perverts.

Am I supposed to take this seriously as a love story? After 240 minutes, here's my major takeaway: when we experience trauma we do bad things that aren't true to our real selves, and a better source of comfort/healing than the typical social institutions is to force our unrequited love onto that special someone.

A fun energetic romp, assuming you rise out of seeing dicks cut off and girls sexually assaulted.

^There's a few points for discussion to jump off of. You're welcome.

[paulofilmo]

Am I supposed to take this seriously as a love story? After 240 minutes, here's my major takeaway: when we experience trauma we do bad things that aren't true to our real selves, and a better source of comfort/healing than the typical social institutions is to force our unrequited love onto that special someone.

well, yeah! i mean you're supposed to find it credible within the frame of its own fantasy.
i guess lady macb would've chilled on the hand-hygiene if she popped a zoloft, but really we want to see her transformation into a sleepwalking fruitcake.


there's a scene near the end of LE where yu (now fully Miss Scorpion) and yoko are sat on a bench in the asylum. it's remarkable how unremarkable it is visually, as all the emotional heft that's built up over the best part of four hours is being carried by the dishevelled remains of yu's miss scorpion disguise. it's a guy in drag and a girl in a casual dress sat on a bench, shot on video, and it's thrilling.

[paulofilmo]

Next movie is All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001).

bully for you!

[snallygaster]

I might rewatch this one, as I liked it very much indeed, although I'm a bit fearful it might not hold up.

Tip: The Japanese-release DVD has no English subtitles but much, much, much better video quality than the English-language release. It's really an abomination. If cruising the grey market, look for the Japanese (Region 2) DVD and download the subs from somewhere, or look out for "custom subs" versions that combine the Japanese video with the English subtitle track.

[paulofilmo]

That was hard-going. Need to unwind with something care-free after that.

[snallygaster]

Rewatched. It's certainly not a perfect movie, and in some respects its flaws are more grating on repeat viewings -- it dabbles a bit too much with familiar high school drama tropes, an important plot point comes off as extremely unlikely, the main protagonist's spinelessness goes deep enough to strain our sympathies, depending on your frame of mind the typed text sequences can be annoying. But it still mostly held up for me. Although it can certainly be disregarded as another manipulative high school melodrama, there's something weirdly mythic about the story and characters, particularly the antagonist's transformation. I bumped it down a few points but it maintains its T10 position.