[EVA] Love and Pop

[Patrick Yip]

     PY @ TOKYO
     
     The next movie directed by Anno, "Love and Pop", will be on road-show 
     (that is, on show in cinemas) on Jaunary 10th. 
     
     This time he chooses to do a real-life movie. No link to anime at all. 
     The script is an adaptation of a novel with the same name by Ryuu 
     Murakami, a very popular novelist who writes mainly about the social 
     problems of contemporary life in Japan. 
     
     The story is about one day spent by a group of four high-school girls, 
     aged 15, 16, 17 and 18 respectively. in Shibuya, a place frequented by 
     young boys and girls. 
     
     It is about "Enjou Kousai", literally meaning "Assisted 
     Friend-making", which is the euphemistic name for sex trade by 
     high-school girls. "Enjou kousai" is a real social problem in 
     contemporary Japan. This stems from two major distortions and 
     absurdities in Japan's society: (1) the young girls are crazy about 
     brands and beauty treatment but obviously they lack the means to buy 
     them. Seeing peers get cool stuff further ignites their desire for 
     expensive things. (2) the "oyaji" (good-for-nothing middle-aged old 
     man) have a perverted secret urge to "taste" the teenagers, and they 
     are willing to spend good money to get a young girl to go out with 
     him. Naturally when there are both demand and supply, trade arises. 
     The whole thing does not necessarily lead to sex. On the contrary, it 
     seems that a lot of "oyaji" are contented (perhaps grudgingly) to just 
     have a "date" with a young girl, dining, singing karaoke, going for a 
     walk, perhaps with some hugging and kissing. Obviously it is not 
     uncommon for something more carnal to happen. One of the first and 
     used to be the hottest medium for "enjou kousai" to take place is the 
     "telekura", the Japanese short-hand for "telephone club". A man goes 
     to a "telekura" and checks on a list. When he finds some names he is 
     interested in, he makes calls or leaves a message. If the girl on the 
     other side feels like having a conversation, then she'll call back and 
     then they can talk. What happens afterwards depends wholly on the two 
     persons and the "telekura" claims no responsibility over that. At 
     first sight, "telekura" is just a convenient place to know people, but 
     in fact in most cases it has to do with "enjou kousai". Recently 
     "telekura" seems to have declined in favour, perhaps has something to 
     do with the intensified police action. But then other media have also 
     already come up for "enjou kousai". 
     
     The story in the movie has the 15 year-old girl desiring something 
     expensive (a ring? I can't remember). She tries "enjou kousai" after 
     talking to her more senior friends who already have previous 
     experience of "enjou kousai". While she is spending time with a man, 
     her 3 friends follow them to various places in Shibuya, perhaps to 
     make sure that their friend would not be taken advantage of.
     
     One special feature in the movie is that it is mostly filmed by 
     digital camera at close distance from the actresses. This gives a 
     heavy sense of reality and proximity, and makes the film look more 
     like a documentary. 
     
     I got this info from a relatively short review section, so it's 
     possible I didn't get something right. 
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