Japan 1998, 110 min, Dir: Hideaki Anno
Japanese with subtitles
New Restoration
Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or “compensated dating”, where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.
LOVE & POP is radical in its stylistic approach, taking to the streets of Shibuya with handheld digicams, distorted lenses, and unconventional camera angles. Criminally underseen for years, LOVE & POP remains a singular portrait of Japanese youth coming of age in the Y2K era. This experimental coming-of-age film was NEON GENESIS EVANGELION’s writer/director Hideaki Anno’s live action feature debut, and is screening in its first-ever North American theatrical release.
