Sion Sono

The premise is pretty simple, which is normal considering this is more or less a Mad Max clone. The governor's daughter has run away, so he straps a jailed criminal into a highly explosive suit, and he gives him five days to find her. The post-apocalyptic wastelands are very hazardous territory though, so finding her and taking her back in one piece won't be a trivial task.

Marrying Japanese and American influences within a film is never easy, and there are moments when Sono stumbles. There's plenty of crazy and the film certainly has its share of memorable ideas, but it never really culminates in the cult cool you'd expect from a project like this. The sets are creative and colorful, the characters are mad and the pacing is perfect, even so the film lacks impact. A minor disappointment.

Kobayashi is a popular and respected director. For his next film he's looking for a cast of amateur actors, so he spreads his casting call around and accepts all the applications. The film plays like a series of vignettes, detailing the lives of all the people who applied for the audition.

150 minutes is a bit much for a film with no clear endgame. Performances are good (Morgan Mara is a real find - I'm certain we'll be seeing her again), the cinematography is nice and there are some solid smiles, but in the end it lacks something that kept me fully engaged for the entire runtime. Not Sono's best, but even his more pedestrian films are well worth a watch.

Yoshiro is an average, unremarkable student. One day he wakes up with supernatural powers. He can read people's minds, which throws his life upside down. He's not the only one in his city who woke up with new capabilities though. A power struggle begins, as not everyone is planning to use their newly acquired skills to do good.

I'm not sure why Sono decides to make this film. It certainly didn't help his reputation, maybe he just wanted to have a laugh at the expense of otaku, or it's just a little silliness in between more demanding projects. Regardless, Sono commits and the result is lots of fun. It's a bit like watching a Noboru Iguchi film but made by a more capable director.

Yoichi and Izumi have a little farm in the countryside, which they tend to with their parents. An earthquake hits Fukushima and the natural disaster destroys a nearby power plant. Yoichi doesn't want to leave his farm, but when he hears that his wife is pregnant, he is forced to make some tough decisions.

There's no lack of quality Japanese drama, and Sono can't quite meet that bar. Some of the performances are a little off, the drama isn't quite subtle enough and the film's a bit too long, but there are interesting and memorable moments. If he could've tightened the film just a little, this might have been a personal favorite. As it is, it's a strong film about the Fukushima disaster, but not one that rivals its peers.

Shiro's dad has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Shiro has always had a strong bond with his dad, seeing how he was also his football coach when he was younger, but he was never really able to tell his dad how he felt. Because time is running out, Shiro tries to make the best of their final days together.

The performances are solid, the styling is appropriate and there are some hard-hitting moments. Sono would have done well to keep the drama a little simpler though. It would've made for a more concise and pointed film, as opposed to the more complex and dragged-out version we're seeing now. Fine Japanese drama filler for the fans.

Shin is tired of his boring, sheltered life in Japan, so he decides to relocate to New York. Once there he is taken aback by the violence and racism. When he is robbed he feels defeated, but while he tries to steal some food from a grocery store he runs into two compatriots who decide to help him out. Shin joins their little gang.

The performances are all over the place and the overly stereotypical depiction of the US is a little grating at first, but once you start to understand where Sono is going with this film things start to fall into place. The film becomes progressively more interesting and those who stick with it will find some strong scenes in its second half. Not Sono's beat, but interesting regardless.

A low-ranking actor travels back to his hometown for his high school reunion. He doesn't just want to catch up with his old classmates, he also wants to find out who gave him an STD all these years ago. Once back he begins to remember why he left this town all those years ago, and as his mind travels back in time, he forgets why he decided to return.

It takes a while to get going, but once Sono gets his film on the rails it's more than intriguing enough. There are some memorable scenes, it's never dull despite some pacing issues and even though not everything is explained in full, I never felt I lacked crucial information. If Sono should remake any of its films, it's probably this one.

The plot is rather basic but functions more as an excuse for Sono to fire off some of his creativity. Sion is a young director who comes across a girl who is secretly in love with a cook. The problem is, she has never even spoken to the guy. He decides to make a documentary about her, and with the help of a fashion designer and a butoh master, he tries to make the girl's dreams come true.

The film is set up as a documentary, and I wouldn't be surprised if Sono used some unscripted material here, but the film is obviously a construct. The cinematography is drab, but I loved the score, the energy, and the lack of conventions. I consider this film the real start of Sono's madcap career, so if you love wild Sono, be sure to give this film a go.

Ryoichi's dream to become a punk rocker has died a silent death and his relationship with Yuki fails to become romantic. He gets a pet turtle and calls it Pikadon, but his colleagues make fun of his new friend. After flushing it down the toilet, Pikadon ends up in the sewers, where he finds a mysterious old man who decides to rescue the turtle.

The weird plot and the sewer/Kaiju adventures make this a very entertaining endeavor, the only thing I didn't care for was the rock drama. When Japan combines its music and film industries it rarely ends well, sadly Love & Peace is no exception. Ik makes the middle part a little sluggish, other than that this was a light and pleasant Sono film.

A mass suicide shocks Japan. More than 50 high school students gather in a station and jump in front of an oncoming train. The police are puzzled, more so when a string of human skin is sent to them and suicides keep multiplying. A mysterious website seems to be the key to unraveling the mystery.

The opening scene is a true classic, but once the investigation gets underway the film slows down too much. The performances are strong (not too surprising if you check the cast) and there are several scenes that jump out. The ending too is an absolute delight for fans of Japanese kookiness, only Sono would hone his work considerably in the following years. Good, but not great.

Jiro used to be part of a ballooning club. Some of the members were true ballooning fans, others were just there for the company, or to find a soul mate. Several years later, Jiro hears that the leader of the club died in an accident. It's a good time for the former members to have a little gathering and reminisce about the good old days.

The shakey DV camera work isn't the greatest and the film feels a little aimless. Sono explores some of the relationships between the members of the club, but that's about the gist of it. The score is pretty unique though and if you like watching Japanese youngsters hanging around and going about their business, it's a pretty entertaining watch.

Noriko doesn't feel at home in her suburban family, so she decides to run away and move to Tokyo. She seeks out one of her online friends and becomes part of her "family circle", a little club of people who can be hired to pose as fake family members. Noriko convinces her sister to come and join her, but when her dad hears about the emergence of suicide clubs on the news, he travels to Tokyo to find his daughters.

Suicide Club was a pretty strange beast, Noriko's Dinner Table is too, but in different ways. It's a pretty fragmented film, following four people who each share their version of the events. It's also quite long and it has some bigger ups and downs. There are still some signature Sono moments, but there are some lulls too, and the climax comes a bit too early. Still, if you like Sono's madness, it's going to be worthy of your attention.

There's only about 15 minutes worth of plot here. A hitman hires a real estate agent to find him a room in Tokyo. The hitman is looking for some peace and quiet, but the rooms that are presented to him don't fit the bill. The agent takes a different approach and takes the hitman to visit some farther-off places, located in the slums of the city.

There's quite a bit of footage of people standing around and waiting, elongates shots of the city and the port of Tokyo. The black-and-white cinematography is decent but nothing too out of the ordinary, the soundtrack is interesting, but not quite polished enough to carry the film singlehandedly. I certainly didn't mind The Room, but I need more polish to get completely wrapped up in a mood piece like this.

Yoshiro and his team of espers are going to Tokyo. They got a worrisome text message from one of their friends, and they've been unable to reach her since. When they arrive at her school, they find that her class has been taken over by three different gangs. Word is also out that their virginity is key to keeping their esper powers, which is pretty tricky at Yoshiro's age.

High class this is not, but I knew that going into it. Sono does commit to the material though, silly as it is, and that's what makes it funny. The cast is also pretty solid for this type of thing, with Shota Sometani in the lead and a nice secondary part for Yuki Sakurai. Far from great, but if you like ultra-daft comedies with a raunchy edge, it's pretty decent.

Close to the handover of Hong Kong, conflict between the Japanese and Chinese immigrants in the Koenji area flares up. A possible savior comes from an unexpected source. When a Japanese boy and a Chinese girl fall in love, they inspire the gay communities of both nationalities to join forces, and together they are hellbent on easing the tension.

The setup is pretty interesting, but the execution needed some polish. It feels like a cross between a lesser Tsukamoto, a meager (Gakuryu) Ishii, and a tepid Miike. It's certainly not all bad though, Sono's talent already shines through and for a film that goes well past the 2-hour, it never gets boring. It's just that Sono wasn't quite ready to do justice to the material he was handling here.

Keiko is a young waitress living alone in Tokyo. She doesn't have anyone, and when her father dies of cancer she turns even more inward. She becomes obsessed with time, and three weeks before her 22nd birthday she decides to document the time she spends in that period, no matter how lonely or confrontational the exercise will be.

Sono does his best to create an introspective atmosphere, and while many of his attempts are on the mark, with a film like this every detail matters. The cinematography is promising and the soundtrack can be quite mesmerizing, but the direction is a little too imprecise to make it work consistently. It's an interesting experiment from a talented director, but not 100% successful.

The technical qualities are poor and amateurish, the image quality is extremely grainy, the camera work is rough and the use of the soundtrack is very basic. Half of the time it's just Sono himself shouting things at the camera, the other half are some random scenes that hardly connect to the broader whole.

But there's a lot of energy and even though individual scenes don't really impress, the whole is vibrant and alive. It does offer an interesting window in Sono's mind and fans of the man's work will have an easy time connecting the dots, as a stand-alone work it isn't quite as interesting though.

Image and sound quality are absolutely terrible. The grainy cinematography, fuzzy image quality and haphazard camera work are no doubt due to the poor equipment and Sono's own inexperience, some will consider it part of the charm, but I'm not a big fan. It just comes off as very amateurish.

Still, Sono's potential is already clearly visible. There are some strange stop motion bits, exaggerated sound, a lot of random weirdness and Sono himself clowning around. It's an interesting film for fans of the man's work, or people who love crazy and experimental documentaries, just don't expect anything polished.

Virtual Love is about a young girl who starts working as a virtual escort. She takes on clients and spends time with them, making their lives a bit more enjoyable. She gets help from a second girl, teaching her how to act and behave, whilst the whole thing is recorded and can be sold later on.

The titular love is romance, not sex, so don't watch it if that's what you're after. The premise is kinda fun, but the performances are pretty weak and the film looks and sounds terribly cheap. There's not enough time to properly explore the plot, at this point I expect way more from Sono, even (or maybe especially) when it's only a short.

Shiro and Keita are two boys who were left behind by their classmates after they failed to get good enough grades on their entrance exams. Shiro doesn't care too much, as he is more interested in finishing their Super-8 film project, but Keita wants to move on with his life. When his former girlfriend returns to town for a visit, he only feels more pressure to succeed.

People familiar with Sono's work will recognize his hand in some scenes, but it's all very basic and preliminary. The drama is interesting enough, but the performances are poor (with Sono taking up the role of Shiro) and the cinematography is appalling. It often feels like you're watching a rough cut that still needs to pass through post-production. Not good.

The film follows a young man as he struggles to cross over into adulthood. He lives in a small house on the outskirts of the city and he still attends college. He fears the life that lies ahead of him and wants to enjoy his freedom while he still can. He roams the streets and makes a ruckus wherever he goes. Whether it's running around naked or making a fuss at a nearby swimming pool party.

There's a lot of raw energy here, it's just a shame that Sono doesn't know how to channel it yet. The performances are a little too energetic, the camera work is a blur and the message gets lost in the process. I still appreciated the dedication and youthful enthusiasm that gushed from every single frame, but it wasn't enough to make this a good film.

The saddest part was that many of the short didn't even deal with the future, but openly referred to or praised the medium's past. There's also a lot of doom and gloom, with some very basic visions of people not caring enough about arthouse cinema, or playing movies on their phones. Your typical old-man-yelling-at-cloud stuff.

There is only a small selection of directors who seem to have understood the brief, and they struggle to make the most of their limited runtime. What remains is a complete mess, with most shorts looking like they were made on people's afternoon off, and hardly anything that stands out. A disappointment.

The plot is pretty simple and the title is quite self-explanatory. There is a feud between an all-male and an all-female dorm, and they like to make each other's lives difficult. A local marathon is fuelling the conflict between the two. The girls have hired outside help to help them win, whereas the boys are recruiting some old members to make sure they have the edge.

The premise leaves ample room for a pleasant comedy, but the quality just isn't there. The film looks like a home video, the performances are weak, and the editing is almost random. There are some interesting ideas, some stylistic elements that made me think of Gakuryu Ishii's early work, and some moments where you could see signs of Sono's later brilliance. But none of it adds up to an enjoyable experience.

The title gives away the entire plot, of which there isn't much. Namie runs a pottery workshop. It's not just about pots and clay, Namie sees it as a way to teach her pupils about love (and lust). To do that, they have to get pretty intimate with the clay, and eventually, with each other.

I generally try to avoid this niche, unless it's a film by a director I care for. That's about the only reason to watch this, unless you get your kicks for pinku cinema. No plot to speak of and lots of nude women playing around with clay. At least it was short, but even then this felt like it lasted for ages.

Two women are candidly talking about their sexual adventures. One girl loves the act and simply wants to have as much sex as possible, only the men don't always please her. Another girl tries to get over the loss of her brother by sleeping around. After each session, they give a short commentary on their experience.

The film looks atrocious, there isn't happening anything except two people having sex and the documentary bits surrounding these scenes add little to nothing. It's one of the worst films Sono has ever made, so thank God it was rather short. It's best to stay away from this altogether, unless you really want to watch everything Sono has ever put out.