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Love Exposure (2011)

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Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 1,809

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Movie Info

Tokyo teen Yu Honda (Takahiro Nishijima) is the traumatized son of a widower-cum-Catholic priest (Atsuro Watabe), who begins a sexual liaison with parishioner Kaori (Makiko Watanabe). When Dad's affair comes to a halt, he begins admonishing his son to confess to so many sins that the 17-year-old takes up new ones to appease his father's increased religious zeal. One "sin" - surreptitiously taking candid photographs of panties worn by female pedestrians - becomes a vocation. Unfortunately, a deal

Unrated, 3 hr. 57 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Sion Sono

Dec 19, 2011

Omega Project

All Critics (20) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (2) | DVD (2)

Exhibiting astonishing dexterity, Mr. Sono shapes all this trauma into a narrative that's completely coherent and surprisingly touching, never more so than in Yu's struggle toward sexual maturity.

September 1, 2011 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a campy rampage that runs a few minutes shy of four hours, dooming what otherwise would likely be a bright future as a midnight movie.

September 1, 2011 Full Review Source: NPR | Comments (2)
NPR
Top Critic IconTop Critic

As the old cliche goes, you will not have another moviegoing experience quite like this one all year.

September 1, 2011 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Would the film be easier to take in a more condensed form? Of course it would, but then it wouldn't be the singularly overwhelming oddity that it is.

May 12, 2011 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Manga-indebted but without lens trickery, this is exhilarating cinema experience.

December 1, 2011 Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews | Comment
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

This four-hour opus about the fury of love and the love of fury is ritually fascinating, often excessive and, with a caution the film wields like a blade, achingly poignant.

September 22, 2011 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment
Boxoffice Magazine

The more you can let this amazing, unbelievable film overwhelm you, the better.

September 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Love Exposure is, in a sense, Shion Sono's equivalent of the Great Russian novel.

August 31, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Love Exposure plays like a marathon greatest-hits-and-misses mixtape. If you see only one Sono film, check out this flick; you will have then seen them all.

August 31, 2011 Full Review Source: Time Out New York | Comment
Time Out New York

It's different, but it's exhausting. Without ever being funny, it keeps up a strident, cartoonish tone for all of its four hours.

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | Comment
Sunday Times (UK)

A strange, deftly scripted brew, alternately involving and distancing, and often very funny.

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | Comment
Observer [UK]

A colourful four-hour rom-com that feels both small and intimate. And it's never dull for a second.

November 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | Comment
Shadows on the Wall

Complicated and long but deftly handled adventure/caper/satire that ends up being thoroughly entertaining.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

A swooning, often riotously funny melodrama charged with a refreshingly perverse undertow.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Ambitious, inventive and endlessly arresting, Sion Sono's epic romance is a vibrant rite of passage, guiding us through a world of repression, hypocrisy and delusion towards true love.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Curious and tasteless, but never dull.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]

Deeply strange and politically incorrect, baffling, and often funny.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

It's as mad as a box of frogs, but a strain of melancholy romance adds emotional backbone to the gags, gore and kung fu.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

A graphic mixture of violence, heartache, sex and kung fu, Love Exposure is not for all tastes but there are wonderful moments.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Express | Comment
Daily Express

Audacious, emotionally engaging and laugh-out-loud funny, Love Exposure is one of the best films of the year, thanks to Sono Sion's masterful direction, a superb script and a trio of terrific performances.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: ViewLondon | Comment
ViewLondon
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Love Exposure

Really weird and 4-hour Japanese comedy-action-drama film about the three emotionally abused individuals from the fringes of society get locked in a convoluted love triangle. I couldn't believe this ridiculous story is true and this mix scenes didn't work very well for me. The overall story about love and religion

August 28, 2011
deano
Dean McKenna

Super Reviewer

Sion Sono's Love Exposure is a comedy romance that isn't afraid to go there.With a run time of just under 4 hours, yeah that's right, this film comes down to being a love story. However, this movie is far from romantic. Sion finds a way to tell the story in a religious sexually offensive way.There is no nudity aside

October 24, 2009
skactopus
Justin Y

Super Reviewer

    1. Yoko: Could you get off of me please?
    – Submitted by Chris P (5 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Love Exposure (DE)
  • Love Exposure (UK)
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