Guilty of Romance (2011) Koi no tsumi (original title)

Director:

Shion Sono

Writer:

Shion Sono (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 September 2011 (Ireland)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

Love Is Hell.

Plot Keywords:

Kiss | Choking | Woman On Top | Murder Investigation | Foreign Version

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Miki Mizuno	...	Kazuko Yoshida
Makoto Togashi	...	Mitsuko Ozawa
Megumi Kagurazaka	...	Izumi Kikuchi
Kazuya Kojima	...	Shoji
Satoshi Nikaido	...	Masao Yoshida (as Satoshi Nikaidô)
Ryûju Kobayashi	...	Kaoru
Shingo Gotsuji	...	Kazuo Kimura
Motoki Fukami	...	Maki Martini
Chika Uchida	...	Eri Doi
Marie Machida	...	Mari (as Marî Machida)
Ryô Iwamatsu	...	Supermarket manager
Hisako Ohkata	...	Shizu Ozawa (as Hisako Ôkata)
Kanji Tsuda	...	Yukio Kikuchi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cynthia Cheston	...	Prostitute
Mae Ohtsuka
Suwaru Ryû

Directed by
Shion Sono

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Shion Sono		screenplay

Produced by
Yoshinori Chiba	....	producer
Nobuhiro Iizuka	....	producer

Original Music by
Yasuhiro Morinaga		(music director)

Cinematography by
Sôhei Tanikawa		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Jun'ichi Itô

Art Direction by
Yoshio Yamada

Costume Design by
Chiyoe Hakamada

Production Companies

• Django Film
• Nikkatsu

Distributors

• Nikkatsu (2011) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Rapid Eye Movies (2012) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Shaw Organisation (2013) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Zootrope Films (2012) (France) (theatrical)
• Bounty Films (2012) (Australia) (DVD)
• CN Entertainment (2012) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
• CN Entertainment (2012) (Hong Kong) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Cinemax (2012) (Hungary) (TV)
• Eureka Entertainment (2011) (Ireland) (all media)
• Eureka Entertainment (2011) (UK) (all media)
• Monster Pictures (2011) (Australia) (all media)
• Monster Pictures (2011) (UK) (all media)
• Olive Films (2011) (Canada) (all media)
• Olive Films (2011) (USA) (all media)
• Sundream Motion Pictures (2012) (Hong Kong) (all media)

Also Known As:

"Koi no tsumi" - Japan (original title)
"Crime of Romance" - International (English title) (literal English title)

Runtime:

144 min | 112 min (international version)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Japan:R18+ | UK:18 | Ireland:18 | South Korea:18 | Australia:R | Hong Kong:III | France:16 | Germany:18 | Singapore:R21

Company:

Django Film

Trivia:

The story is loosely based on the 1997 murder of Yasuko Watanabe, who was a senior economic researcher at TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), but was also a prostitute at night in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.

Movie Connections:

Follows Cold Fish (2010)

Unusual story of murder

What's striking about the movie is the murder at the opening scene. A woman's body was found that was cut in half, and decapitated. The missing parts were arranged with parts from a mannequin. Then the story shifts to the life of Izumi (Megumi Kagurazaka) who's a new house wife of a novel writer. Her husband is a perfectionist, and demands her to be so as well. But when she finds a part time job at the super market, things starts to change in her life.

Story is an adaptation of murder of Yasuko Watanabe (description in Wikipedia) by director, and screen writer Shion Sono that occurred in 1997.

The movie to me had two phases. First half was about Izumi, and the way she gets duped into the shady side of society. The second part is the horrible truth about Mitsuko (Makoto Togashi), and the truth about who's body it was that was found at the beginning of the movie.

The first part of the movie was beautiful, but the second part of the movie was gruesome. First part was well made, but I couldn't get into the second part. Mitsuko's character lacked authenticity, and her social background improbable.

So otherwise it was a fine movie, but there was no story towards the end (Mitsuko's life seemed forced, just to justify the plot). I wish the quality was consistent throughout the entire movie.