Review | Film review: Antiporno – Sion Sono lends unlikely feminist outlook to his roman porno homage
Japanese director takes a rare feminist standpoint in this soft-core porn story, that starts with a female author/artist and her domination/humiliation of her older assistant, and the gradual role reversal that ensues
4/5 stars
Seldom one to be praised for his positive representations of women onscreen (remember Virgin Psychics ?), Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono takes encouraging strides towards a more feminist outlook in Antiporno, his entry in film company Nikkatsu’s ongoing roman porno reboot project.
Following Wet Woman in the Wind and Aroused by Gymnopedies , Sono’s effort is easily the most ambitious entry yet in the series of re-imagined softcore entertainments. Not only does it challenge gender roles within the Japanese film industry – and in the country as a whole – but the film also attempts to deconstruct cinema as a voyeuristic narrative medium.
Trapped in a gilded cage of her own success, coquettish novelist/artist Kyoko (Ami Tomite) is preparing to be interviewed for a prominent lifestyle magazine. Wrestling with nausea and self-doubt, she alleviates her insecurities by subjecting her older assistant, Noriko (Mariko Tsutsui, Harmonium), to a series of ritual humiliations.
