Love & Peace

Direction and Screenplay by: Sion Sono

Produced by: Asmik Ace Entertainment

Release Date: June 27, 2015

Lenght: 1 hour, 57 minutes

One of the six Sion Sono movies from the mid-2010's, Love & Peace is a bit of a departure from his usual style, foreboding gory violence in favor of a lighthearted christmas film, though it retains his usual style with surreal ideas and the themes of the japanese individual oppressed by the collective's interest.

The story is a tragicomedy about a pathetic salaryman and wanna-be musician who goes to work with a gigantic "kick me sign on his back" that all but one of his co-workers, with whom he has a crush on, are willing to oblige. His mood fortunately improves after finding and adopting a baby turtle, but when he's found out to own the little critter at the workplace, and inevitably bullied for it, he ends up flushing the poor animal on a toilet out of shame. This is when things take a turn to the fantastical, as turtle then ends up meeting a magical homeless man capable of giving sapience to toys and animals, but he screws up the potion and now the turtle is growing in size. At the same time, the salaryman managed to find the opportunity to become the musician he always wanted to be, and his ambition grows alongside his pet turtle. You can take a guess looking at the kaiju above where this is heading.

Similar to Colossal and Godzilla Minus One, Love & Peace is a daikaiju film that uses it's monster as the narrative parallel to the main human character's arc. But for most of it's run time, it's a bittersweet but emotionally sincere film, in which the cast's beliefs on the path life set them on is challanged for better or worse. It also has some extremely charming animatronics, who's limited movement add a sense of cuteness and vulnerability to the abandoned unfortunate souls they represent. If you're the type of kid who lamented the loss of a toy or a pet, then this movie will hit you very personally.

This has become a new unexpected christmas favourite for me, pretty much hitting all the right notes for me while being reminiscent of Gamera The Brave (2006) in the best way possible. Definetly worth a watch during this season.