Sion Sono	...	(Director)
Sion Sono	...	(Writer)
Miki Mizuno	...	Kazuko yoshida
Makoto Togashi	...	Mitsuko ozawa
Megumi Kagurazaka	...	Izumi kikuchi
Kazuya Kojima	...	Shoji
Satoshi Nikaido	...	Masao Yoshida (as Satoshi Nikaidô)
Ryûju Kobayashi	...	Kaoru
Shingo Gotsuji	...	Kazuo Kimura
Motoki Fukami	...	Maki Martini
Chika Uchida	...	Eri Doi
Marie Machida	...	Mari (as Marî Machida)
Ryô Iwamatsu	...	Supermarket manager
Hisako Ohkata	...
Kanji Tsuda	...	Yukio Kikuchi
Cynthia Cheston	...	Prostitute
Mae Ohtsuka	...
Sôhei Tanikawa	...	Cinematographer
Hisako Ôkata	...	Shizu Ozawa
Mae Otsuka	...	(as Mae Ohtsuka)
Yasuhiro Morinaga	...	Composer
Jun'ichi Itô	...	Editor

Comments: I'm bumping this from 3 to 4.5 ... and trying to figure out what I missed the first time. This is classic, beautiful, philosophical, poetic, over-the-top Sono. What really struck me this time is how wonderfully crafted almost every shot is. The colors. The faces. The angles.

I had this "doh!" moment during the "meaning of tears" scene where I realized that the more Sono you watch, the more you get a feel for what he's doing and then the whole thing becomes Meta-Sono.

I know I'm right that he has no idea what he's doing, and I know he knows it, and I know he knows it doesn't matter because he knows it will all come out in the wash. (Some times it doesn't. He knows that, too. He's not perfect)

I would really like to know at what point from conception to release he thought of having the sidekick cop tell that story to the lady cop about the woman chasing a garbage truck and then have the lady cop chase a garbage truck over the end credits. Try to make sense of that.

Sono could make a film in three days that takes off from when the lady cop says "Beats me". I know that film is in his head. I want that film.

Apparently there is a cut version of this film that mostly does away with the lady cop's character, that does away with that shot of the side of her face while she's on the floor after she's masturbated. She swallows, and takes a breath. A cut that does away with the ending of the film. What kind of film would that be?

It'd be a film about Izumi and Mitsuko. Which is what it is. It would have that scene of Izumi watching her husband get fucked by Mitsuko while some guy throws water balloons at them. That's enough.

The film starts off rather quietly. Chapter 3 starts, Mitsuko shows up, and off comes the roof. The scene with her mom is in the stars. The performances of both Makoto Togashi and Megumi Kagurazaka are outstanding. Sono's greatest gift is what he can get actors to give.

Now I have to figure out where to re-rank this.

Summary: The film consists of two versions: an International Cut, spanning 113 minutes, and an original Japanese Cut, spanning 144 minutes. The latter is currently unavailable outside of Japan and focuses more on a female detective (Miki Mizuno) who displays multiple facets of herself: detective chasing a murder case, a motherly side, as well as a lover. The former exices most of her storyline and focuses on the secret lives of a university assistant professor Mitsuko (Makoto Togashi) and a devoted housewife, Izumi (Megumi Kagurazaka), whose husband is a popular novelist.