Sion Sono completes his "Hate Trilogy" with yet
another brutal onslaught of sex, murder and madness with his 2011 film, "Guilty
of Romance". Only this time, Sono decides to borrow elements from Luis
Bunuel's classic "Belle De Jour" (1967), strips it of all its ingenious
storytelling and subtlety, throws in a grisly murder mystery and copious
amounts of sex along with poetic ramblings and some Kafka! Does Sono
make the best of all the elements in this final installment?
We
open with a rather familiar murder scene one rainy night with Det.
Yoshida (Miki Mizuno) being called in to a crime scene where there are
two bodies found, which are part human, part mannequin! The severed members of the corpses are replaced with their mannequin counterparts and sewn
together! The bodies are found in some shady location in the love-hotel
district, which is a haven for lovers looking for a short sexual romp.
As the mystery of the ugly crime unfolds, a parallel narrative flashes
back to the story of Izumi played by the gorgeous Megumi Kagurazaka, a
sexually repressed, insomniac, submissive wife of a famous novelist
Yukio Kikuchi (Kanji Tsuda), who suffers from a strange kind of OCD. He
wants his indoor slippers placed in an exact position by his bed and at
the door, for instance, and expects his wife to do the needful each
time, failing which she may be subject to a scolding, just like that one
instance when she places the wrong soap in the bathroom! Every time he
leaves his house, the two exchange a fixed set of words. "Off I go then"
followed by her peep, "Have a nice day".
Life
goes on, until, with the approval of the weird husband, Izumi takes up a
job at a local supermarket selling hot sausages. She is later
discovered by a lady who is impressed with her drop dead gorgeous
anatomy and offers her a modeling job. It is not strictly a modeling job
as we later learn. The modeling is just a façade, beneath the innocuous
exterior of which, possibly lies a seedy world of pornography.
In no time,
the meek, shy housewife experiences a sexual awakening, gives consent to
all the exploitation at the modeling agency, and turns into a wild sexpot who soon offers herself to her supermarket customers for some bodily pleasure!
Izumi is now all happy and radiant, with her newfound secret life, while
at home the same old mundane routine with the hubby continues! Soon, another woman named Mitsuko (Makoto Togashi), who's also leading a
double life, meets Izumi and introduces her to a world in the darkest,
most morally depraved corners of the city. Izumi follows her mentor Mitsuko, as she begins to get drawn in by her twisted philosophy only to discover some bitter truths about her existence.
It
all sounds fairly interesting on paper, but unfortunately, "Guilty of
Romance", not only has a misleading title, but it also suffers from a
lack of focus, especially in the latter half. What starts as an
interesting psychological drama focusing on a sexually repressed woman
and her transgression to a new awakening, a la "Belle De Jour", turns
into a sickening exercise in gratuitous sex and nudity that rambles on
and refuses to go to any great distances except hover around its own
maze of contrivance and ultimately loses its way. Sono, being a former
poet, adds some poetic and philosophical touch about words and language;
like words have no meaning until they are flesh! Mitusko's other
ramblings dwell upon the importance of the body and how it has value.
Nothing comes free! That helps as a driving force in establishing how
prostitution is a respectable profession!
Sono
keeps us wondering as to where the film is really headed. He
successfully engages the viewer in trying to connect the dots of
multiple threads of the story, waiting in anticipation, as Izumi's world
moves from nude modeling to prostitution. Literary references to
Kafka's "The Castle" as something unattainable are added to the
mix of the journeys of Mitsuko and Izumi. Sadly, it doesn't really shape
up into something substantial and satisfying as it should have. There
definitely seems to be something missing here.
Sono's storytelling style that is usually episodic takes us to the last chapter, the End of Story,
to a culmination that brings in some additional characters and new
twists to the story, including a resolution of the aforementioned murder
mystery. But these twists, while could be considerably disturbing for
first timers, and although arrived at with some fine edge and a
pulse-like war-drum score, aren't half as surprising or exciting for
audiences familiar with Asian horror/thrillers. As a matter of fact they
border on the brink of manipulation and hence an inherent pretense
shows in the deadly twist of a forced act of violence in a rather clumsy way to wrap up the proceedings!
Despite
all its narrative flaws, Sono's "Guilty of Romance" does deserve points
for his filmmaking finesse, nevertheless, and also for his excellent
sense of atmospherics. A string score evoking melancholy and a sense of
tragedy complements the neon lit seedy underbelly of Shibuya, Tokyo. The
special makeup effects pertaining to the crime scene are realistically
done to the extent of being nauseating! And there is a special
sexualized homage to Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" (1976), one of the turning
points of the film.
Megumi Kagurazaka does her best and delivers a
daring performance, but one can't help but think how exploitative it was
in her unabashed skin show and sex scenes. After a point her periodic
humping gets somewhat tiring! Kanji Tsuda delivers an aptly deadpan act
as the uninterested, weirdo novelist. But the performance that shines
the most is of Makoto Togashi. Her transformation from a university
lecturer by day to a ravishing seductress by night (offering herself to
her students too!) is nothing short of brilliant! Those eyes and voice
do a roundabout in an almost scary fashion, as if like a woman
possessed!
Sono
reduced the film length by approximately 30 minutes from the original
cut which is apparently available only in Japan right now. Due to a lack
of good subtitles for a rip of the longer version, this reviewer had to
resort to viewing the more accessible abridged international cut, which
is also the version Sono himself prefers. Apparently, there is a
parallel story about detective Yoshida as well, in the longer cut.
Whether the international cut improves upon or ruins the original
Japanese cut remains to be seen. But as long as this version is
concerned, Sono's filmmaking talent is very much in place but the script
leaves a lot to be desired. With someone like Sion Sono, one would
expect something called as a "Hate Trilogy" to climax with a bang. Too bad,
though, that it had to end with a mild thump instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment