, also known as ''Anti-Porno'', is a 2016 Japanese
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
written and directed by
Sion Sono
Sion may refer to
* an alternative transliteration of Zion
People
* Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name
Plac ...
. It was released by
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...
as the fourth film in the reboot of its
Roman Porno
in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equi ...
("romantic pornography")
series. Other directors involved in the series include
Hideo Nakata
is a Japanese filmmaker.
Life and career
Nakata was born in Okayama, Japan. He is most familiar to Western audiences for his work on Japanese horror films such as '' Ring'' (1998), ''Ring 2'' (1999) and '' Dark Water'' (2002). Several of these ...
,
Akihiko Shiota
(born 11 September 1961, Maizuru, Kyoto) is a Japanese film director and screenwriter.
Career
Shiota attended Rikkyo University, where he was in a film club with other students such as Makoto Shinozaki and Shinji Aoyama and began making 8mm f ...
,
Kazuya Shiraishi
is a Japanese filmmaker.
Works
Film
TV series
References
External links
*
Japanese film directors
Japanese television directors
Living people
1974 births
People from Hokkaido
People from Asahikawa
{{Japan-film-director-st ...
, and
Isao Yukisada
is a Japanese film director from Kumamoto. He served as assistant director on Shunji Iwai's ''Love Letter'', ''April Story'', and '' Swallowtail Butterfly''.
Filmography Director
* ''Open House'' (1998)
* (Sunflower) (2000)
* ''A Closing Day'' ...
.
Plot
Kyōko is a renowned artist and writer trapped in a solitary gilded cage of her own success where she speaks to the phantom memory of her dead sister Taeko. Her assistant Noriko arrives to help her prepare to be interviewed by a prominent lifestyle magazine. Wrestling with nausea and self-doubt, she alleviates her insecurities by subjecting her older assistant to a series of ritual humiliations in front of the others.
A director yells "Cut!" and it is revealed that the two women were playing parts in a
pornographic film. Noriko reveals herself to be a prima donna who is frustrated with the fledgling actress Kyōko's amateurish ineptitude and subjects her to humiliations mirroring those in the scripted scene. The layers of the two actresses' true personalities and Kyōko's background are revealed over the course of repeated performances of the scene.
Cast
*
Ami Tomite
AMI or Ami may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
*AMI-tv, a Canadian TV channel
**AMI-télé, the French-language version
* AMI-audio, a Canadian audio broadcast TV service
*''Ami Magazine'', an Orthodox Jewish news magazine
Businesses ...
as Kyōko
*
Mariko Tsutsui as Noriko
*
Asami
*
Fujiko
*
Ami Fukuda
*
Honoka Ishibashi
*
Yūya Takayama
Release and reception
The film premiered at the in France
on September 7, 2016, and was later released in Japan on January 28, 2017.
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 6.80/10. James Marsh of the ''
South China Morning Post'' writes that "Sono's effort is easily the most ambitious entry yet in the series of re-imagined
softcore entertainments. Not only does it challenge gender roles within the
Japanese film industry – and in the country as a whole – but the film also attempts to deconstruct cinema as a
voyeuristic
Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature.
The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". A ...
narrative medium."
Ela Bittencourt of ''
Slant Magazine'' wrote: "Cruelty,
masochism
Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...
,
parental abuse (in the painter's flashbacks) and
schadenfreude of all kinds fuel this feverish
op-art dream that turns on us at every corner."
Some critics praised the film for subverting
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...
's reboot of
Roman Porno
in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equi ...
by boldly critiquing and exposing the sexual exploitation of the
film and
pornography industries. Nathanael Hood writing for
Mubi
Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; The Auteurs before 2010) is a global curated film streaming platform, production company and film distributor. Mubi produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusivel ...
noted that, for Nikkatsu's reboot, Sono was a seemingly perfect choice. His previous films, especially ''
Love Exposure
is a 2008 Japanese comedy-drama film written and directed by Sion Sono. The film gained a considerable amount of notoriety in film festivals around the world for its four-hour runtime and themes including love, family, lust, religion and the crim ...
'', ''
Suicide Club'', and ''
Tag'', show a certain sexual obsession in the director's work.
Hood said,
Other critics argued the film lacked nuance. Chuck Bowen of ''Slant Magazine'' said, "Sion Sono, allergic to subtlety, is terrified that we won't notice his detonation of Nikkatsu's
sexploitation traditions."
References
Literature
*
External links
*
* Antiporn
Filme Online{{Sion Sono
2016 films
2010s Japanese-language films
2010s Japanese films
Japanese drama films
2016 drama films
Films directed by Sion Sono
Nikkatsu Roman Porno
Films about pornography