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Love & Pop
is a 1998 Japanese experimental coming-of-age film directed and co-written by Hideaki Anno, based on the novel Topaz II by Ryū Murakami. It was Anno's first live action feature-length film. The film was shot almost entirely on hand-held digital cameras and contains some very unusual camera work, including many different mounted camera positions, such as on a model train riding on tracks. The film also flips from widescreen to fullscreen, distorts (with effects such as a fisheye lens), confuses, and makes use of overlays stacked in layers to convey the character's emotions.
Plot
The film follows four Japanese high school girls who engage in enjo-kōsai, or compensated dating. This is a practice in Japan where older businessmen pay teenage girls more commonly to simply spend time with them, or for prostitution. The main character, Hiromi, does not have the direction in life that her friends already have. Hiromi's friends were going to buy her a ring, but Hiromi refuses to accept their offer because she does not want her friends to be jealous. Hiromi goes on dates by herself to get money for the ring. Soon, she gets in over her head. Hiromi falls too far into the world of enjo-kōsai as she tries to hold on to a "friends forever" vision of the past.
More details
author | Akio Satsukawa Hideaki Anno |
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director | Hideaki Anno |
editor | Hiroshi Okuda |
events | enjo kōsai prostitution |
genre | action |
keywords | date high school girl japanese high school teenage girl |
musicBy | Shinkichi Mitsumune |
producer | Toshimichi Otsuki |
productionCompany | Cine Bazar |
publisher | Toei Company |
recordedAt | Shibuya-ku |
theme | avant-garde and experimental coming-of-age japanese teen |