Underwater Love

Cinemania

World Premiere

Germany, Japan | 87 MINUTES | Japanese |

UNDERWATER LOVE

Dubbed a "pink musical," Underwater Love brings together two genres—musicals and pinku eiga (pink films, a soft-core porn genre of Japanese cinema)—in a story of unrequited love with the mythical water creatures known as kappas. Thirtysomething Asuka has an easy life, a job in a fish factory, and a fiancé, Taki, who's also her boss. One day, as she walks by the lake near the factory, she sees her first kappa—a legendary Japanese creature with a human form but a beak face and a tortoiseshell back. She soon realizes that the kappa is her old friend from school, Aoki, who drowned when he was 17. As she hides Aoki from her fiancé and others, she must begin to decide what is most important for her.

Between Asuka's self-discoveries are some requisite—and outrageous—sex scenes and musical dance numbers with music by French-German duo Stereo Total. Director Shinji Imaoka, part of the new wave of pink directors known as the "Seven Lucky Gods," collaborates with renowned cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who shot many of Wong Kar-wai's films, to create a wacky, silly, touching, sexy spectacle like none other.

 



Co-hosted by

Japan Society


CAST & CREDITS

Directed by Shinji Imaoka and Shinji Imaoka

SHINJI IMAOKA joined pink film company Shishi Pro in 1990, working as an assistant director to Hisayasu Sato, Takahisa Zeze, and others. He worked on Inmoraru with the late Tatsumi Kumashiro in 1995, when he also made his first feature, Waiting for the Comet.
Director of Photography
Christopher Doyle
Director
Shinji Imaoka
Music
Stereo Total
Screenwriter
Shinji Imaoka, Fumio Moriya
Producer
Stephan Holl, Daisuke Asakura
Primary Cast
Sawa Masaki,Yoshiro Umezawa, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Emi Nishimura, Ai Narita

CONTACTS

Press Contact
Films Boutique
Films Boutique
Berlin, 10997
Phone: +49.30.6953.7850
info@filmsboutique.com
Sales Agent
Jean-Christophe Simon
Films Boutique
Berlin, 10997
Phone: + 49 30 8411 0859
simon@filmsboutique.com