Each
film in Nikkatsu’s relaunch of the iconic but formulaic soft-core series (see Dawn of the Felines and Wet Woman in the Wind for reference) is
not supposed to exceed eighty minutes. Check. There is also supposed to be a
sex scene every ten minutes. In this case, that sort of happens, but not
really. Of course, Sion Sono is all about breaking rules. When he tries his
hand at a R-P, he produces one of his most feminist films yet in Antip0rn0 (trailer here), which screens
during the 2017 Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film in New York.
Kyoko
is the new It Girl of fashion and chick lit, but she is a hot and mean mess.
She will lead her submissive assistant Noriko down a rabbit hole of humiliation
and degradation to disturbing depths. However, things are not what they seem. Instead
of a sex scene, Sono delivers a world-upending rug pull every ten minutes. Of
course, they usually involve plenty of nudity. Plus, dig that groovy color
palette.
While
it would be spoilery to explain too much, the previous Sono film AP probably shares the closest kinship
with would be Tag, which also relied
on strong female characters. Whereas Tag challenged
its primary trio to literally give their performances on the run, AP demands full physical and emotional
exposure from Ami Tomite and Mariko Tsutsui, as Kyoko and Noriko respectively. They
also cover an emotional range like you wouldn't believe and often have to turn
on a dime (again, it is hard to cite specifics without giving the game away).
AP is a heck of a
mind-you-know-what, which is sort of appropriate to the genre, notwithstanding the
degree that Sono totally and utterly deconstructs it. Yet, even at seventy-five
minutes, the defiant gamesmanship starts to run out of gas in the closing act.
Still, it really has to be seen to be believed—and much like Kazuya Shiraishi’s
Felines, if you find it arousing, you
should probably seek professional help.
