A low budget indie film produced by the Great British
company Third Window Films, nowadays the superior provider of
new interesting asian film, and especially then from Japan, in the West
.... and it's not geared to suit a western audience.
So, no semi-nude highschool girls running around with chainsaws attacking
yakuza samurai zombie ninjas.
The great Eiji Uchida has got free hands to do what he wants and the
result is amazing as this is among my favourite asian
films the last year or so. Hey, i actually liked this little black indie
drama-comedy even more than his amazing Greatful Dead
(Gureitofuro deddo) from some years ago (read about this film
on my Japanese film page).
In this film we get to meet an array of sleazy, quirky, unique and mostly
unlikeable people in and around the lower end, the
belly, of the japanese film industry. But this lovely collection of
creeps do have at least 1 (one) reedeming attribute, they all
LOVE FILM and filmmaking. Well, that's something isn't it ?
Indie filmmaker Tetsuo Aoki (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) has
made one good film, The Sow, but that was in 1998 and many years
ago. Now he's 39 years old, lives at his mother's place, makes porno
movies and has lots and lots of sex with lots and lots
of aspiring hopeful actresses. He's a sleazy guy who steals his mothers
pension and lures money from just about everyone.
But Tetsuo has a photo of indie filmmaking genius John Cassavetes on
his wall and his "students/suckers" has to call him
"Director". He considers himself more worthy than the mainstream
director Kano as he's an indie director and not a sell-out.
With his friend Mamoru (Yoshihiko Hosoda) he runs the Cinema Club, a
Workshop where hopeful actors/actresses and
scriptwriters can take part after paying the dynamic duo a hefty sum,
everything in the hope of getting a part in his next film.
But, what they don't know is that Tetsuo has no money and is so bummed
up that there will probably never be such a film.
Tetsuo is perfectly content with "lecturing" the suckers in
his Workshop, with drinking and lure young actresses to his bed.
One day though an actually talented actress enlists to his club, Minami
(Maya Okano) and also a talented scriptwriter in
Ken, played by Shugo Oshinari, the actor made immortal by his amazing
performance as the Highschool bully Hoshino in
Shunji Iwais's 2001 film Masterpiece All About Lily Chou Chou.
Now, Tetsuo's spirits risen and he plans to film again,
with Minami in the main role and on Ken's script, Love's End.
But there are other director's out there hunting actresses, other sleazebag
sharks out for fresh pu--y. It's a jungle.
To be honest here, the actresses going to bed with these sleazy guys
are no angels either as they fu-- every scumbag, if they
think this will land them a role. The charismatic Kyoko (Chika Uchida)
a regular in Tetsuo's bed is furious when she hear
that Minami will get the main role .... "i lost count how many
times we fu--ed".
Kyoko even has a friend she calls after following som douchebag home,
to check his references before going to bed -
"he hasn't made a film in years ... he only make semi-porno's and
direct to video yakuzas" (actually, the latter doesn't have
to be that bad as great directors as Takashi Miike and Kiyoshi Kurosawa
started with such stuff in the 1990's).
There are some great supporting actors in this film,
as Denden playing Tetsuo & Mamoru's yakuza connected producer,
Kanji Furutashi as the mainstream director (but still a sleazebag) Kano
and Aki Hiraoka as the porno actress.
widescreen, stereo 2.0 japanese audio with english subtitles, blu-ray
region ALL - DVD region free
Extras: trailer, cast introduction (11 minutes), 3 deleted scenes, extended
scene, alternate ending, TIFF (Tokyo International
Film Festival 2015) stage greetings with cast and director (12 minutes),
TIFF red carpet, Behind the scenes (16 minutes),
it's a wrap (some words from actors after doing their last scene) and
a Music Video.
The music is played partially by a very interesting sounding rock/folk/prog
something duo - Tjiros, really cool
