Love & Pop

Director: Hideaki Anno

1998 / 110min / DCP

Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Anno’s live-action feature debut, based on a novel by Ryū Murakami, the stylistically exuberant Love & Pop centers on Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi (Asumi Miwa) and her three friends, all of whom have begun earning extra spending cash by going on dates with older men for pay. Over the course of a single summer day spent in the streets, shops, and love hotels of Shibuya, Hiromi tries to hustle her way to ¥128,000 before the mall closes in hopes of getting her hands on a topaz ring that’s caught her eye. A cutting commentary on acquisitiveness run amok, and a prescient look at coming of age in Japan at the precipice of a new, pixel-drenched century, shot almost entirely on consumer-grade handheld digital cameras.

Distributor: GKIDS

Part of Tokyo 199X