Love & Pop(Rabu & poppu)

Truly ahead of his time, Evangelion franchise creator Anno Hideaki embraced the early days of the digital filmmaking revolution with open arms for his first live-action directorial effort. Based on a novel by Murakami Ryu, the coming-of-age drama explores Japan’s controversial ‘compensated dating’ trend (also called ‘sugar dating’), which saw young women – many of whom were underaged – go on paid dates with men despite the many risks involved. Spurred on by the freedom provided by the on-the-fly nature of digital filmmaking, Anno reflects the vibrant and rebellious nature of his young heroines with unorthodox camera techniques such as bizarre angles, odd lenses and random aspect ratios changes, which are so radical that they still seemed subversive when Anno employed some of them again 20 years later on big-budget tokusatsu revival films like Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman.

Yokohama Film Festival: Best New Director and Best New Talent