This is a four hour film from Sion Sono, who has directed "Suicide Club" and "Exte", amongst other films. He certainly is a maverick and this film continues to cement his reputation. The film is about the young Yu, played excellently by Takahiro Nishijima, whose father became a Catholic priest after his mom dies. The story more or less tells his life for one year starting with age 17. He falls in with a ragtag group of petty thieves, thus discovering sin. What we then find out is he is a master of the upskirt camera shot. You watch as he does martial arts moves to get the pictures. This garnered the loudest laughs from the sell out crowd at the Japan Society in New York where I saw the premiere. He then meets the rough around the edges but very pretty Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima) and also the somewhat creepy Sakura Ando, whose character tries to lure Yu and his family (which soon includes Yoko, whose guardian is dating Yu's priest dad) to a religious cult. Yoko means everything to Yu, so he tries to stop this. This film can be vulgar at times (you see copious amounts of upskirt shots) and it also to a point bashes Catholicism, but its also pretty powerful. The movie is not boring, despite its length. Its best watched in a theater, since the reaction from the audience at the premiere I went to enhanced the enjoyment. The only reason I didn't give it a 10 was because of its sometime vulgarity, but I highly recommend this film. Sion Sono is very impressive and this is a worthy addition to his controversial but always intriguing career.
