Beginning in the early 1970s, and lasting until the late 1980s, the Japanese film studio Nikkatsu released a series of sexploitation films known as Roman Pornos. As a result of the success of Nikkatsu's Roman Pornos, a whole new genre known as pink films emerged. These films mixed highly explicit depictions of sex and violence, with such provocative titles as Keep on Masturbating: Non-Stop Pleasure, Deep Throat in Tokyo, and Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands. While some of these films strived to be films of genuine artistic merit, the majority of pink films existed solely to titillate audiences. Flash forward to 2016, and Nikkatsu rebooted its Roman Porno films with a series of new titles, and hired Sion Sono to create one of these films.
True to form, Sion Sono's entry in the new Roman Porno series is anything but a typical pornographic film. Sono boldly announces this intention with the title of the film itself--Antiporno (2016). Although it does have its share of nudity and explicit sexuality, Sono's film is actually an experimental commentary on the nature of fame, and also an exploration of the constantly evolving power dynamics between two actresses. As Antiporno begins, Sono sets us up to believe that we are watching a film about the domineering artist Kyoko (Ami Tomite) and her cruel manipulations of her put-upon assistant Noriko (Mariko Tsutsui). With its story of a celebrity's shifting relationship with her assistant, and its single location setting in the lead's house, Antiporno recalls Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.
Like Fassbinder's film, the relationship between Antiporno's two female leads gradually transforms as Sono delves into the troubled past of his protagonists. A role reversal occurs between Kyoko and Noriko when Sono uncovers the true nature of their relationship with a clever plot twist that reveals the thin line between art and real life. Both Antiporno and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant bathe the viewer in a luxurious color palette, with the former film being more like an Andy Warholish Pop Art burst of vivid colors, and the latter resembling a more subdued, classical Art Deco painting. Both films take place in a single location, but Sono is able to break through the confines of Antiporno's setting through vivid flashback tableaus, and dynamic displays of his two leads' constantly morphing power dynamics.
Ultimately, like Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Sono is interested in exploring the sadomasochistic relationship between his female leads. Sono's protagonists are engaged in an eternal power struggle to reclaim control of their own lives, as well as redefining their roles with each other. Pleasure and pain, and being master and servant, are the dichotomous terms that tie Kyoko and Noriko to each other, and as the film progresses, their identifies merge into one. The concept of repetition and dualism is explored throughout Antiporno, both in the relationship between the two leads, as well as in the narrative structure of the film itself; Sono explores the same scenes over and over again through multiple angles, culminating in a dramatically explosive third act.
Like the majority of Sono's best films, Antiporno is a deconstruction of traditional genre tropes. While Nikkatsu hired him to make a porno film, Sono instead created a Fassbinder inspired art film about the nature of performance and celebrity. Like his previous film Why Don't You Play in Hell?, Antiporno uses the framing device of a work of art being created to explore the thin line between the creative life and the reality it reflects and distorts. Kyoke and Noriko are actresses, but the performances they create in the film within a film of Antiporno are a reflection of their sadomasochistic off-screen relationship.
This is what makes Antiporno and Sono himself so refreshing; he is constantly reinventing genre tropes to discover new ways of cinematic storytelling. Is Antiporno a pornographic film, or is it an homage to Fassbinder? Why can't it be both? Sono has always been interested in the subject of pornography throughout his career, most amusingly in his masterful Love Exposure, whose protagonist constantly struggles between feelings of guilt and his more primal lustful urges. In Antiporno, there is no guilt to hold back its protagonists, resulting a film filled with the liberating power of female sexuality. So, in the end, Antiporno is both a pornographic film in the traditional Nikkatsu Roman Porno genre, as well as a psychological, experimental exploration of sex as a form of power and control. Sono is removing the guilt usually associated with watching pornographic films, while also challenging viewers to view the depiction of sex in cinema as high art.
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