[Review] Ai no Mukidashi (Love Exposure)
So as a few of you may know, on Saturday the 1st of August, I went to see Ai no Mukidashi [Love Exposure] at the Melbourne Film festival!!
So first things first, the film showed at the ACMI Theatre in Federation Square at 2:30pm. I was told by one of the people that I called about the film to get there a little early as the tickets you buy online do not have allocated seating. So we got there about 45mins early, and lucky we did!!! Because the film ended up being SOLD OUT! And we were pretty close to the front of the line, and because we had 9 people we wanted to all sit together, and we were able to! YAY!
Love Exposure, was apparently (according to one of the workers there) the first film to have a SOLD OUT session (the 2nd session is ALSO sold out!), and I mean ABSOLUETLY sold out, not a single ticket remained, no seats vacant! (except for the one, that a person from our group was supposed to take, but didn't show!)
I will now tell you a little secret, I promised my friends I wouldn't watch the DVD of the movie, before seeing it at the fest with subs... but I couldn't resist. I watched the first couple of minutes, then about an hour in, I watched about 20 minutes... and then another hour in I watched about an hour... haha! So i knew some of the things that were going to happen, and the basic plot.
Ok, one thing I want to say, is how AWESOME it was seeing this film with an actual audience! It was HISTERICAL! Everyone was laughing and enjoying the film so much, it made me enjoy it even more! Even the scenes that were a little more... ermm... obscene, there was laughter, which made those bit's a little easier to deal with HaHa! Because I'm a bit weird when it comes to that kind of stuff on screen.
It was also fun, because I was sitting next to one of my friends who isn't a Nishi or Japanese fanatic, she came just for the sake of it. And seeing her reaction was hilarious, not only that though, she came out loving the film too! AND she said Nishi was 'hot'!! THAT'S RIGHT!
Though, also in our group, we had two Japanese girls, staying in Australia for the year teaching, and although they found the film funny, and enjoyable at times, I think they found it a little to crude. But in all honesty I didn't think it would be their cup of tea, but i thought it would be worth them coming anyway. Neither of them are AAA or Nishi fans, but coming out of it they both thought he was cute. HaHa! (if they didn't already O.O)
OK!!! So now to the ACTUAL film!!
I went into it having HIGH expectations, every single review I had read gave it a huge wrap! So I thought it was going to be the most fantastic thing I saw in my life, and I'll tell you what.... IT FRIGGIN WAS!
The four hours, like a lot have said, truly FLEW BY! I did notice that it was long, but the movie was so intense that I never lost focus or interest.
Now if I was to go by Australian Movie Rating Standards, I would assume it would be rated somewhere between M or MA15 . When you go to watch the movie, do keep that in mind, don't view it thinking you're going to be getting a happy romance flick. As, although the movie is incredibly funny, it also has a serious plot line as well as being quite crude and disturbing at points.
It IS an epic love story, but it is also quite predominately, for the first 3 hours, an up skirting movie. More so than anything else, I found those parts the funniest, because of Yu's (Nishi) background and his motive for doing what he does.
The few complains I have aren't very important, but I will list them.
- There seemed to be a low budget of sorts, as the editing at times seem either amateur or rushed. Having camera/angel change made very obvious by change in sound quality, volume and lighting.
- In fight scenes, sometimes punching and kicking sounds were highly stylized sounding like something out of an anime or a kung-fu movie, and other times there was little to no sound what-so-ever.
- There was one scene where Yu’s phone rang, and the pitch was so loud, so much louder than everything else in the film, almost everyone in the cinema jumped out of their seats. This was more funny than annoying, but seemed like a mistake. It may have simply been a problem with the sound at our viewing, not sure.
Now, with that all being said, I can still easily say Ai no Mukidashi was my favourite movie of the year, in fact, thinking really hard, I can’t think of many movies that have topped it ever. But this is only my opinion. And I’m not being bias because Nishi was absolutely FANTASTIC in it! This is in all honesty.
Not only was the plotline utterly enthralling, but the cast was diverse, and their acting was fantastic!
Ai no Mukidashi made me laugh, it made me cry and best of all, at the end of everything it left me satisfied.
I am more than a little excited to see it again at the second screening, and will probably watch it a few more times after that, with or without subs.
Now before I leave you all, I want to offer, that if I get the time, I may do a summary of the movie, that will help people who have not been able to view the film with subs. Sure I don’t speak Japanese, but I can do a general run down of what’s happening in each scene, and make quotes where I remember them.
And if there are any other people who would like to help with a summary that would be greatly appreciated.
LAST, a question, I remember a couple of people at this comm said they were going to attend the screening on Saturday, just wondering if any of you actually went, and how you enjoyed it.
Also if anyone else has any questions or general comments about the movie. I would certainly like to hear them!!!
Ok, ciao for now ^^
<3 Cassie