For his first live-action movie, director of “Evangelion” Hideaki Anno picked a rather difficult task, of adapting Ryu Murakami's novel “Topaz II”, with the first book having been adapted by the author himself, with the title “Tokyo Decadence“. In his effort to transfer the surrealistically sexual premises of the book, Anno implemented an even stranger visual approach, using almost entirely handheld cameras, which resulted in a film that borders on the experimental.
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The story revolves four high school girls who engage in compensate dating, meeting elderly businessmen who pay teenage girls to spend time or have sex with them. In this case, the many men the girls meet do not ask for sex, but the perversion is still present, as we watch them dating people who just want to watch them eat, or make them chew grapes and then keep the remains. Hiromi, the protagonist of the film, also joins in this endeavor, but in contrast to the rest of the girls, still questions the whole practice. The friendship and the bonds involved though, make her continue, while the way the rest of the gang decide to give her the money they earn from the dating, to buy a really expensive ring, highlights their relationship. Eventually, Hiromi decides to go on a few dates by herself, where she meets more unlikely characters, including a man with Turret syndrome who makes her give him a hand job in the porn section of a video store, and another who talks to his stuffed animal as if it was alive.
Much like the first film, “Love and Pop” functions as an exhibition of different perversions (again in a style similar to De Sades' The 120 Days of Sodom”), although in this case, the sex and nudity elements are significantly toned down, barely existing in essence, since the fact that the protagonists are teenagers would not permit Anno to go that way. This, however, does not mean that the perverse sexuality is nowhere to be found, since the fetishism elements are everywhere, even if their presentation is almost subtle. This approach is mostly implemented through the unusual camera work in the film, with DP Takahide Shinabushi using various techniques, including frames within frames, changing aspects, distortion and a number of unusual angles, most of which however, seem to present the perspective a voyeur (or a peeper if you prefer) would have. Particularly the many shots where the camera is placed on the ground looking up intensify this sense, and give the film its distinct hedonistic essence. The same applies to the repeated focus on the girl's hands and nails, whose appearance eventually plays a role in the narrative.
Ryu Murakami's books usually implement a sense of disorientation, which is also communicated here through Hiroshi Okada's editing, through the rapid succession of many different scenes and the cinematography tactics. The use of sound, which includes narration from different female voice and a number of voice messages the girls use to communicate with potential customers and occasionally with each other, also moves towards the same direction.
However, there are also a number of sociophilosophical comments to be found inside all this audiovisual chaos. Male perversion seems to be a dominant one, with Anno presenting almost every man in the film as a hentai caricature, while the stuffed-animal man also represents the ways these perversions can become dangerous, with Tadanobu Asano giving a great performance in the part. The extreme materialism of society, which actually extends to using money to satisfy different fetishes, is another main theme, which also extends to the girls. In a highly pragmatic approach, Anno presents them as anything but victims, since, despite their age, they know exactly what they are doing, with the combination of their and their customers tactics highlighting the decaying of modern Japanese society. The film implies that the source of this social decay is the lack of real communication, with the chat rooms, the SMS, social media (even in 1998) having replaced actual human contact, which subsequently, has led to an intense loneliness that justifies, to a point, materialism as an alternative life goal.
Commenting on the acting in these setting is somewhat difficult, but Anno definitely deserves kudos for the way he manages to distinguish the three girls in the narrative (the fourth one is dressed in regular clothes not in a school uniform). Asumi Miwa as Hiromi is the undisputed protagonist, and gives a very fitting performance, highlighting her need to connect but also to find her own way, even if, in the end, she does not stray far away from her friends' path. The few scenes where she shows true discomfort are the highlights of her performance.
“Love and Pop” is a very interesting film, in a style reminiscent of Sion Sono to many, and definitely deserves a watch, particularly to the viewer that can see the social commentary beyond the perversions and the unusual visual approach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lGqVyoTTig
