 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Antiporno • Year: 2016 • Country: Japan • Director: Sion Sono • Main cast: Ami Tomite, Mariko Tsutsui • Runtime: 76 minutes • Production company: Nikkatsu • TRAILER (not available) |
I think many will agree that Antiporno was one of the most controversial movies of this last 49th Sitges Film Festival. Not for the crudity, nor for the blood that the festival regulars are accustomed to, nor for being a novelty of the fantastic genre. However, Sion Sono, that same controversial director that surprised in 2001 with Suicide Club, surprised us now with a new and mature reflection about the Japanese society where he comes from.
Antiporno works as a metaphor, as metacinema (those works that reflect on the discipline itself) and as an apology for women. The action is focused in only one place (theatre space) where past and present collide in the form of acting, of women with opposite roles and personal lives. The movie, as an author piece, allows different and multiple interpretations (and I don’t have the intention of reducing them), but from my point of view, it presents us a conflict of generations, of profession, and even more, of femininity, all concentrated in a small theatrical space, until it becomes so big and heavy that it breaks, breaking a fictional 4th wall, killing the sanity that was left, reversing roles in the middle of the film and letting us drawn among colours and yelling.
I believe it’s a controversial movie because all extremely personal movies are so, and a lot of people will watch it and go home thinking it’s worth nothing. Because mixing genres is controversial. Because the artistic level (and by this I mean freedom of expression) is very high, and that’s sometimes difficult to justify. It’s not a movie for everyone, to watch on a Sunday and enjoy. It’s a kind of cinema that goes beyond the images and the acting. I believe it’s a strong critique against Japanese society (in line with his previous work) and against old thought, the kind that does not value the new (values, generation, and so on). And a Roman Porno is a mean of undressing the female human being, of looking for his entrails and see where she comes from while catching some attention.
This film is one of those cases where the message justifies the means. Because the history of women is closely linked to sex, taboos and repression. In this mental exploration of femininity, where women embody both protagonist and antagonist (in a sort of “woman is a wolf to woman”), we can see the distinction between social roles and intimate thoughts, and the coexistence of opposites inside the same being. It’s not a reflection taken lightly, and as a woman myself, I find it daring and interesting. Maybe it doesn’t convince me in its form, but it surely does in the content.
RATE: 7/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5973032
