Love & Pop by Anno Hideaki (1998)
19 January 2005I have to admit to being a huge fan of Anno, having really enjoyed NEON GENESIS EVANGELION and especially KARE KANO, and I can see how this influenced KARE KANO, and that alone would let me enjoy this film. This film is much like BOUNCE KO GALS, though I thought much better. Another tale of the trials of high school girls trying to make money by getting it from older men. And boy are these men scary. From this I would be afraid of all Japanese men if I was a Japanese high school girl!
This film is about a pretty 16 year old high school girl, Yoshii Hiromi (Miwa Asumi who does an excellent job) and her 3 closest friends. A computer geek who can never say no, and gets a phone for a subsidized dating service, a girl who is going to quit school to be a dancer, and a girl who has gone all the way many times. The friends are starting to drift apart because they are so different than Hiromi, and they aren’t friends that talk about the really deep things, they purposely keep it light. They are planning on going to the beach for the summer, so they go to buy bathing suits, and Hiromi does it quickly and sees a ring that she wants, because it is the perfect accessory for the beach, but it is 120,000 yen.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
The girls go and do karaoke with an old guy for 120,000 and he has them each slightly chew a grape spit it out and put into cases in his briefcase, and then the girls try to give Hiromi the money, but she wants to split it with her friends, because she already feels she is being left behind by them. Hiromi ends up taking the cell phone that Nao (the computer girl) had,a nd trying to do some subsidized dating. She ends up getting this crazy guy to masturbate with her hand in a video store, then almost gets mugged, and raped by a crazy guy called captain Eo (that has much of his dialogue bleeped and his stuffed animal blurred), but who leaves her naked, and alone, but tells her how much she is worth. Hiromi goes home and her family greats her kindly and she thinks of her friends, and dreams.
••••
Wow does this film not only say that Japanese men are entirely too screwed up, completely disturbed is more like it. And the high school girls are not all their either, not knowing their own worth and willing to do almost anything for the little things they want, even though money isn’t that important too them.
The film is shot all DV, with mostly really really wide and distorted lenses. The camera is attached to everything it can be, the girls bikes, their arms, giving their point of views, and even railroad crossing bars, and underneath tables. Many shots are layered on top of each other, or riding on model trains much like the one Hiromi’s father is building in their tiny house. The shooting reminds me of the end credit footage and the live action footage sometimes seen in Anno’s Kare Kano and is obviously where he got the style. Very cool to see being such a huge fan of KARE KANO (it is my favorite animation of all time and I love the manga as well).
I highly recommend this film.
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