So I live in a different culture. Which can be very refreshing, the only drawback is that this is Japan and not Italy or Turkey or whatever, and so, I suffer not from anxiety but rather, from boredom sometimes. The degree of exasperation may be the same, who knows. ; )
I think, there is only one thing that can be equal to emotional torture and that is to be assaulted by a constant shower of triviality. Together with a set of completely different values.
So, the Japan Times decides to devote an entire page to a young movie director. Could they not find anything else to write about or do they really mean this? The title of the feature is:

"Telling a lengthy tale of lust and religion
Four hours fly by with Sion Sono's 'Ai no Mukidashi.' But does the extended running time allude to a self-absorbed director?"

and proceeds to tell us that the youngish Mr. Sono is someone who is constantly wearing a black hat. Well, what else can you do if you want to stand out in a crowd where everyone looks almost the same and your face has nothing special to offer, either? Ok, so-
"Why is a four-hour film so popular, with audiences and programmers alike?
Instead of directorial grandiosity, Sono delivered an unpretentious mix of broad satire, much of which targets religion in various guises; stylish, if borderline silly, martial-arts action; and full-throated affirmations of love, voiced by the sweet-faced teenage hero, who also happens to be an enthusiastic voyeur.", I am told while sitting on the subway, slowly shaking my head. So you really mean this guy picked someone as a main character in his film who is "a habitual taker of up-skirt photos"?
"'"He was my friend, but he became a pervert," Sono says with an impish grin. "He didn't do it to get sexually excited. He didn't feel he was doing something wrong. For him it was like bird-watching.'"
Bird watching, uhuh.
"Instead of urging his friend to get therapy, Sono became interested in what made him tick. "I didn't hate him for being a pervert," he says. "I was rather sympathetic in fact."
He also saw cinematic possibilities in his friend's story, despite the ick factor. "I like exploring borderlines," he explains. "In this film, it's the borderlines between perversion and normality, the Catholic Church and cults." "
Oh, great. Well, this is Japan where nothing is sacred. Bird watching, panty shots and the Catholic church. = ( (rolling eyes) And he probably believes this is modern art, too....and, desperate for lack of anything better, the feuilleton journalist gives him an entire page... Or wait a minute, it could also be that this is some rich kid whose father managed to bribe the editor... whatever, let's read on, this train ride is still rather long.
"The film's protagonist, Yu (Takahiro Nishijima), goes one step further than Sono's friend, however: He becomes a pervert ninja, leaping and somersaulting as he surreptitiously snaps the panties of passing women. He is doing it not for erotic thrills, but to please his Catholic-priest father (Atsuro Watabe), who insists that Yu confess his sins — even when he has none."
Oh, come on now, give me a break...Does the Japan Times remember who their readers are? Are we supposed to find this "interesting", to put it mildly? Do they overestimate our ability to laugh about ourselves and everything else? Nah, I am sure, they are not thinking anything at all, they are just doing the job they are getting paid for. I felt sorry for the reporter who had to compose the obituary for "Mr. Interior" who used to be Lux Interior, the singer of the punk band "The cramps" before he o-d-ed on whatever and died in his hotel room. He must have had a hard time trying to sound serious and solemn, the guy reporting on Sono probably had it easy compared to that job...
The next paragraph in this "art feature" tells me:
"Then, while dressed in drag as Sasori — an iconic heroine from an early 1970s "women in prison" series (another of Sono's obsessions) — Yu helps a hard-fisted, if definitely cute, teenage girl battle a gang of punks. Her name is Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima), but to Yu she is a double of the Virgin Mary, who has been his image of the perfect woman ever since boyhood, when he associated her with his dear departed mother."

A hard fisted, cute girl battling punks and reminding him of his dead mother. Jeez. Well, he has got his back all covered now, can't loose with a movie like that in Japan with the young audience, and besides he can also claim this is based on the The tale of Genji, classic literature that everyone knows here. The Shakespeare of Japan is Lady Shikibu, who wrote a lengthy historical novel about a cute prince with a mother complex who had to battle nasty samurai...If you combine this with a taste for panty shots taken by holding your mobile phone under the pleated skirts of school girls' uniform, people raised on a steady trinkle of animated trash movies with subliminal paederastic messages will hopefully turn you into an icon.
Argh...does it get any worse? Let's see...
>"In his mind, (these women) are all mixed up together," says Sono "To him they're symbols of perfect love."
Oh great. Perfect love, with white panties and all, and the Virgin Mary thrown in to boot. They probably have her as a groovey badge on the lapels of their school uniforms...As a long term resident nothing much surprises me anymore...

>"This blurring of the boundaries between religion and romance, as well as the film's various comic digs at Catholicism, may strike some viewers as belonging to the long, dubious tradition of mocking Christianity in the Japanese popular media. Sono, however, insists that he has long been fascinated by the religion, though he has no urge to join it.
"If there were a Jesus Christ fan club, I'd join it," he says. "I've been interested in Jesus for a long time. . . . <
Right. The Jesus fan club. Probably sounds like a cool thing to join, in his eyes.

"In one scene set on a lonely beach, satire gives way to sincerity as Yoko recites a lengthy Bible passage from the Book of Corinthians to Yu. Its best-known line (from the American Standard Version of the Bible): "But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." "

But the greatest thing is love. Right. And did you bring any condoms, by the way? I am sure, the Japense audience finds all this awfully romantic.

"It's the most important scene in the film," says Sono. "It states the central theme — that nothing is more important than love."

Oh, wow, how profound. Nothing is more profound than love, and therefore he will ask to be buried with his photo album of panty shots...

"But for all its layers of character and theme, "Ai no Mukidashi" is less knotty art than easy-to-digest entertainment. There are plenty of laughs, many of which are supplied by Akiko Watanabe as the priest's blithely devout, daffily hypersexed lover. There is also a terrific score that includes everything from Ravel's "Bolero" to an opening theme song by the psychedelic pop band Yura Yura Teikoku. "

Oh, great, Ravel and Yura yura...how about adding a bit of animation before the profundity of all this starts to bore the teenage audience?

"For those who know Sono's early indie films, with their solemn ironies and minimalist emotions, the journey to "Ai no Mukidashi" may seem caterpillar- to-butterfly extreme. For Sono, however, it's less a change than a coming out.
"Those early films were like school graduation projects: They were a kind of learning experience for me," he explains. "But now I'm through with the New Wave. I'm making the kind of films I liked as a kid. I'm enjoying myself." "

He is enjoying himself. Japan, I fear for you...this is the generation that is going to run this whole country soon...

I need a drink.

"Ai no Mukidashi" is now showing.