Director: Sion Sono
Cast: Hiroki Hasegawa, Kumiko Aso, Toshiyuki Nishida, Suidobashi Hakase
Running Time: 117 mins
Well-known Japanese director SION SONO takes a completely different path from his usual gruesome horror films and instead goes down the family comedy route. In LOVE & PEACE, a man suffering from social anxiety and working in a dead-end job befriends a turtle who develops magical wish-giving powers.
It’s hard to fathom that a film like Love & Peace exists. It’s a baffling tale of a turtle who is granted wish-giving abilities and his owner (Hiroki Hasegawa) uses them to make his wild musical aspirations come true. The film’s bizarre plot should be enough to keep people interested, but it somehow is not. There are long stretches where things are a bit too boring.
The film has an interesting sub-plot surrounding how the turtle gains his powers. Not to give anything away, this sub-plot is actually more interesting than the main story itself. This means there’s patches where the film is really entertaining, wacky, and generally delightful – but then the film switches back to the main story of Wild Ryo achieving fame as a rock star and relying on his turtle to provide him with more hit songs.
Overall, Love & Peace is a very unusual film that some people will love and some people will despise. The film’s peculiar nature is excellent at some points, but then tedious at others.
Verdict
