Shinji Somai's sole venture into pink cinema, LOVE HOTEL came about as a collaboration between the legendary Japanese film collective Director's Company (TYPHOON CLUB, BUMPKIN SOUP) and major studio Nikkatsu, eventually being released under the banner of their 'Roman Porno' series.  Consequently, the film is a cut above the typical skin-flick, with Somai using the framework (and budget) of a popular genre to develop a poetic and - at times - melancholic study of characters trying to make sense of their broken lives in the context of modern Japan.  Stronger on mood and atmosphere than it is on plot, it's more auteur art-core than frivolous titillation.

The eponymous love hotel is the setting for the opening scenes of the film, where a desperate businessman determined to kill himself meets with a sex-worker he has hired to accompany him on his last night.  Their encounter changes the direction of their lives, and when they accidentally encounter each other two years later, they find themselves reflecting on what happened and making sense of themselves through they way they feel about each other.

Crudely described by one reviewer as 'what In the Mood For Love would look like if directed by Gaspar Noe', LOVE HOTEL is closer in sensibility to Cronenberg's Crash - a softcore film where the sexual encounters are not interruptions to, but rather a crucial part of the narrative and character development.  That said, Somai certainly doesn't shirk on his softcore remit, delivering a solid quota of graphic on-screen couplings in the film's scant running time.  If you have never experienced pinku eiga, be warned: it gets pretty full on pretty much from the start!

After the screening, why not add some PUNK to your PINK with our special midnight screening of TESUO: THE IRON MAN (1989).