Love Exposure (Sion Sono, 2008)

[Famous Mortimer]

"I am aware of my lack of awareness as a film director and my lack of consideration for the people around me, and I would like to examine how I should conduct myself in the future," he added.

Lot of intelligent people apparently get to a ripe old age before they realise "don't sexually assault people" is the correct way to conduct themselves. Fuck him and fuck every man in a position of power who releases a shitty statement like this when they're finally, after decades, expected to pay (even a little) for the lives and careers they've casually ruined.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Lot of intelligent people apparently get to a ripe old age before they realise "don't sexually assault people" is the correct way to conduct themselves. Fuck him and fuck every man in a position of power who releases a shitty statement like this when they're finally, after decades, expected to pay (even a little) for the lives and careers they've casually ruined.

You're not wrong, it's hideous behaviour and an incredibly shitty response, he was one of my favourite directors but there's no way I'll ever watch anything he does (or has done) now. Which I know doesn't amount for much, but I really hope he never works again after this.

[steveh]

Sono has now moved on to sending legal threats to actor Yuki Matsuzaki for tweeting about Sono's behaviour, including demanding that he never talk about him ever again. Sono is also alleged to have used acting workshops for what sounds like grooming newcomers and to have charged minor actors to appear in his films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vUj01SCK0M (Video is in English.)

[Small Man Big Horse]

Sorry to bump an old thread Neil but I think in this case there's a good reason why, as it ties in with not only how I felt about Love Exposure after watching it, but also my concerns about it now given that Sono has turned out to be a cunt. But as always please turn it in to a split topic if you think it should be.

The reason I was thinking about Love Exposure was because of Lost Oliver's Recommend Me A Long Film thread, as when I saw the thread title Love Exposure was the first film to jump to mind, and very early on in the thread it was also recommended by the ever gorgeous Cleveland Steamer.

But then I started wondering if I should recommend it given what's happened to Sono, I really fucking loved Love Exposure when I watched it (as you can see from the first page), but there's undoubtedly a problematic aspect to it with (

Spoiler alert

the upskirt photography

[close]

), at the time, and given how the rest of the film plays out, I felt Sono had a good reason for including it but now I'm not sure given what's happened in the last two years.

Which is why I thought I'd ask what other people's thoughts are on this matter, and if Sono's real life behaviour taints this and his other films (many of which have been discussed in this thread) for them?

[Herbert Ashe]

Funnily enough when I was reading some of that GB thread on separating art & artist I though of Sono, and how these revelations cast a different light on something like Tag, which I recall as being pretty pointed in it's attitude towards misogyny and violent attitudes towards women but does now whiff a bit of him having cake and eating it.


Dunno if it got mentioned anywhere here, but also recently implicated in this business has been Tak Sakaguchi whose does action roles, stunts and choreography, he's worked with Sono as well I think, some of the martial art films heads here might be familiar with his stuff.

[lazarou]

Yeah, I saw it when the new broke at the time, Tak publicly admitted to bringing women to Sono from what I recall. There might be more recent news I'm missing there, but it's fucking grim, I used to be a fan too.

This reminds me of a deeper cut in the same wheelhouse which I've seen reported almost nowhere. Yoshihiro Nishimura, director of stuff like Tokyo Gore Police and Helldriver (maybe best known as the VFX guy who does the wild gore FX for a vast amount of Japanese extreme cinema and a longtime Sono collaborator), has been implicated in some truly appalling shit. I only stumbled across it by accident when I was looking up an actress from one of his films (Maki Mazui) only to find out she had recently committed suicide after alleging Nishimura had been physically and sexually abusing her for years, possibly since she was underage.

There's very little English-language coverage of this at all, but I did find something here, or if you're handy with a translation app and able to handle some very grim detail her own account of events is still available on her original twitter account (since taken over by her sister): https://twitter.com/mmizui/status/1564628359304577025

[Small Man Big Horse]

Yeah, I saw it when the new broke at the time, Tak publicly admitted to bringing women to Sono from what I recall. There might be more recent news I'm missing there, but it's fucking grim, I used to be a fan too.

This reminds me of a deeper cut in the same wheelhouse which I've seen reported almost nowhere. Yoshihiro Nishimura, director of stuff like Tokyo Gore Police and Helldriver (maybe best known as the VFX guy who does the wild gore FX for a vast amount of Japanese extreme cinema and a longtime Sono collaborator), has been implicated in some truly appalling shit. I only stumbled across it by accident when I was looking up an actress from one of his films (Maki Mazui) only to find out she had recently committed suicide after alleging Nishimura had been physically and sexually abusing her for years, possibly since she was underage.

There's very little English-language coverage of this at all, but I did find something here, or if you're handy with a translation app and able to handle some very grim detail her own account of events is still available on her original twitter account (since taken over by her sister): https://twitter.com/mmizui/status/1564628359304577025

Ah, fuck, I really liked Helldriver and Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, at least as ridiculously daft and over the top horror comedies, and I hadn't heard that about him. Christ, this sort of thing is so sickening, and I hate that so many directors that I once rated have turned out to be horrendous cunts.

[lazarou]

Yeah, same here, I'd been a fan for years and felt genuinely sickened. I'd suspected the guy was kind of an asshole but there's a big difference between being tough to work with and being an actual abuser and it does not look good for him.

Tempting fate here but at least I haven't seen anything bad about Noboru Iguchi yet, who always seemed like the nicest of that crowd to work with by some distance. But he seems to increasingly be the outlier there.