Versione inglese a cura del Master in Traduzione per il Cinema, la Televisione e l’Editoria Multimediale
Article by: Mattia Capone
Translation by: Andreea Catana, Francesca Sala
Excessive, reckless, maverick, unscrupulous. But Sion Sono has also got flaws.
Before talking about Antiporno, it might be better to explain what watching a movie by this incredible Japanese director really means.
Have you ever heard people saying “Asiatic movies are far too complex, I can’t understand them”? There you go, I’m sure that not even Asians can “understand” Sion. At least not at the first viewing.
Kyoko is a multifaceted and volatile rising artist. She paints and writes novels, dragged by the wild inspiration that goes up to the vision of pornographic scenes, which cause her physical illness. She abuses her assistant, making her a slave who has to satisfy every licentious and sinful fantasy she has; the whole thing is followed and stoked by an odd photographic troupe from a Japanese magazine.
But this was just the introduction of the film, because at some point we hear “Stop!” and we find out that it was just a movie into the movie. From now on, it’s going to be a kind of matryoshka dolls mechanism, stories in the story, flashbacks and flash-forwards… I still couldn’t tell for sure what was present, past, future or merely a dream.
So if you are still reading then maybe also you, as me, could fall in love with this incredible and absolutely crazy trip throughout a whirlwind full of vivid and vibrant colours and extraordinary images. More like an experience than just a movie, that has to be watched over and over again in order to love and understand the big amount of ideas and thoughts (have I told you Sion Sono also writes verses and poems?) expressed in Antiporno.
Liberty and slavery, man and woman, sex and love, life and death. I’m sure these are just some of them, but I guess who knows Sion Sono’s movies agrees with me in saying that at the first viewing you are at the mercy of stormy seas of images and sounds.
A successful and high impact opening for the ones who are addicted to the TFF’s movies who never miss the very first viewing, which are led by Sion Sono by now. Even his full-length films are always hard to come by, I suggest you to watch Tokyo Tribe and Tag: unbelievable.