despite starting off with a bang, love hotel takes a bit of time to settle into. what struck me most was just how much the camera moves — what initially felt distracting eventually started to register as a significant formal choice, one that underlines the film’s interest in fantasy and voyeurism. that said, given how intentionally composed many of the shots are (the first taxi ride, the two leads in front of muraki’s apartment, etc), i couldn’t help but wonder if some of the longer takes might have benefited from more focused direction. clearly somai has a lot of strong ideas, but on a scene-to-scene basis, i occasionally sensed a lack of inspiration, leaving me colder than this kind of material usually does.
despite starting off with a bang, love hotel takes a bit of time to settle into. what struck me most was just how much the camera moves — what initially felt distracting eventually started to register as a significant formal choice, one that underlines the film’s interest in fantasy and voyeurism. that said, given how intentionally composed many of the shots are (the first taxi ride, the two leads in front of muraki’s apartment, etc), i couldn’t help but wonder if some of the longer takes might have benefited from more focused direction. clearly somai has a lot of strong ideas, but on a scene-to-scene basis, i occasionally sensed a lack of inspiration, leaving me colder than this kind of material usually does.
