Review for Underwater Love

Introduction

I don't watch a lot of erotica as a reviewer. I'm never quite sure how to approach it, and I haven't really gotten past the teenage smirking stage, a sneaking suspicion that none of this stuff should be taken seriously. But then there is my innate trust in Third Window Films. They are a distributor that I follow with interest, whose films I simply have to watch. I may not like the films, I may love them, but they never bore me. Every Third Window Films release that I have reviewed has been interesting, has been something that I have never seen before, and as a reviewer it's those cinema experiences that I cherish the most. So when Third Window Films announced Underwater Love: A Pink Musical, I didn't hesitate in requesting a review copy, even if it meant stepping out of my comfort zone once more. Besides this isn't the first time they've challenged my preconceptions, although Dasepo Naughty Girls didn't turn out to be as saucy as I expected. Underwater Love will meet those expectations though.


A kappa is a Japanese mythical creature, a water sprite that has a beak, a turtle shell on the back, and a bony plate on the head that it needs to keep wet. It likes eating cucumbers, and challenging unsuspecting passers-by to sumo wrestling matches… Factory worker Asuka wasn't expecting to meet a kappa. She's happy in her job, and looking forward to marrying her boss Hajime. But one day, rescuing a wayward fish not quite ready to be processed, she ran into a kappa, a kappa named Aoki, the reincarnation of her high school crush Aoki. She takes Aoki home with her, which only complicates her relationship with Hajime. It only gets worse when Aoki starts work in the factory as well, and he meets fellow worker Reiko. But the kappa isn't just there to rekindle a high school romance.

Picture

Underwater Love gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, a very pleasant Film-PAL conversion, rich in detail and colour. You can see that it's a low budget film; indeed the film was shot in just 5½ days with a one-take ethos. But the naturalistic lighting, the variety of locations, and the way the final film looks is very organic and involving. There is that slight push towards greens and blues that I find typical of Japanese film, while there is a constant level of film grain throughout. Other than some shimmer on the finest of detail, the transfer is free of compression artefacts.

Sound

You get a very nice DD 5.1 Japanese audio track, with optional English subtitles. Given the music of the film and the songs, the surround track is very welcome, and it does enhance the ambience of the film as well. Otherwise it's really a simplistic, dialogue-focussed piece that stays pretty much front and centre of the soundstage. The subtitles are legible and well timed throughout. The one-take ethos means that there is a fair bit of ADR in the film, and lip sync isn't a priority, especially during the songs. It's easy to get used to though. The only flaw in the disc is a very ill placed layer-change, right in the middle of a song.

Extras

Underwater Love gets quite the feature-laden release, especially if you are one of the first 2000 to place an order, which I highly recommend. The first 2000 copies come with an exclusive Stereo Total soundtrack CD, featuring 19 tracks from the film. I've been listening to it while I've been writing the review and it's quite the mellow electronic experience.

The DVD itself gets animated menus, and in the extra features you will find…

Cinematographer Christopher Doyle - Film Set Interview. This lasts 3 minutes and offers a quick insight into what Underwater Love and Pink Films are all about.


Christopher Doyle - Hotel Room Interview lasts 9 minutes, and sees the film's producer Stephan Holl interview Christopher Doyle on the day of the film's premiere at Tribeca, New York in April 2011. They talk mostly about the process of producing Underwater Love.

Christopher Doyle - Hair Salon Interview lasts 25 minutes and was recorded on the same day. It's a lot more general an interview and Doyle talks more about his role as a cinematographer, and his career. If you can put aside the distraction of an inventive cameraman, then this interview is awesome, with more depth, intelligence, and honesty to its 25 minutes, than the last couple hundred EPK featurettes put together that I have watched.


The Interview with Writer/Director Shinji Imaoka lasts 15 minutes, is conducted by Stephan Holl again, recorded in Germany at the end of 2010, and is mostly in German and Japanese. They talk about the film, and the definition of Pink Cinema is general.

The Pink Porcupines are three 1-minute reels of behind the scenes footage, fly on the wall perspectives of the film's sex scenes being shot.

You get the first look trailer for Underwater Love, the actual trailer, and sixteen Third Window Films trailers as well as a weblink.

Conclusion

That wasn't my cup of tea; although I have to salute Third Window Films for once more presenting me with something I have never seen before. Believe me, I have never seen a soft porn musical before. I don't know if it was a cultural disconnect, or rather a degree of absurdity beyond even that which the story demanded, but I couldn't quite appreciate the film. It's a soft porn, comic, musical fantasy fairy tale, a melding of genres that probably has never happened before. It has something to say about the nature of life, on mortality, about seizing the moment, but for me, the comic absurdity of it all seemed to overwhelm all that, and almost made it feel like a self-parody.


Cinematic porn is a rarity these days, the heady days of the seventies when sex movies filled cinemas are long past, replaced by harder offerings on video, and most lately the Internet. Japanese Pink Movies are the last of a dying breed, itself an industry that grew to keep the waning Japanese film industry of the seventies ticking over. The sex is softer, the films have stories, characters and meaning, and even if the budget is low and time non-existent, the production values are higher than that of video based offerings. But Pink Cinema too is on the wane, fewer films are being made with each passing year, and it's really interest from abroad that keeps the industry going. Underwater Love is a German Japanese co-production, the soundtrack comes from the German band Stereo Total, and while its genre mish-mash may be an oddity, a one-off gimmick, it may also be the jolt in the defibrillator that gives a little more life to Pink Cinema.


And there is something to be said for the approach of Underwater Love, less a soft porn movie than it is a fairy tale with some realistic (kappa notwithstanding) sex scenes. After all it's a very human tale of a woman coming to a crossroads in her life. Asuka's in her mid thirties, hardly past it, but she's beginning to feel the passing of time, and while her impending marriage to Hajime ought to be a reason for unbridled joy, there is enough reflection in her to make her a little wary. The reappearance of her childhood sweetheart, resurrected as a kappa forces her to re-examine her life and question her choices. Of course then the Rastafarian Shinigami shows up, and the story takes a turn for the distinctly metaphorical.


The sex scenes serve the story, and unlike what you would expect from Western erotica, are more naturalistic and driven by character and emotion. They aren't necessarily there to arouse the viewer, and are more an expression of the characters' feelings. They are also more tasteful and discreet than similar scenes that you would find even in the Hollywood mainstream, and they can be tasteful, erotic, comical, silly, heated, or emotional, but never exploitative.


Underwater Love is a film that will find its audience. It's just that I'm not a part of that audience, as it never quite felt the sum of its parts to me. That said, Third Window Films give the film the royal treatment, with a limited edition release comprising the film and its delectable soundtrack. The extra features on the disc are also well worth watching. Above all, Underwater Love is unlike anything you'll have seen before, and after all, isn't that the whole point of cinema?