Love & Pop

Love & Pop (ラブ&ポップ) is a 1998 Japanese experimental coming-of-age film directed and co-written by Hideaki Anno, based on the novel Topaz II by Ryū Murakami. It was Anno's first live action feature-length film. The film was shot almost entirely on hand-held digital cameras and contains unorthodox camera work, including many different mounted camera positions, such as on a model train riding on tracks. The film also flips from widescreen to fullscreen, distorts (with effects such as a fisheye lens), confuses, and makes use of overlays stacked in layers to convey the character's emotions.

An official English-language DVD was released in 2004 by Kino on Video.

Plot
Hiromi Yoshii is a high school girl living in Tokyo. She has three friends: Nao, who is interested in computers, Chieko, who is older and more mature, and Chisa, who plans to drop out of school to become a professional dancer. Hiromi feels that she lacks direction in comparison to her friends. All four routinely go out with older men in exchange for payment.

On July 19, 1997, Hiromi wakes up and goes to Shibuya. There, she meets Nao, who, earlier that day, had met a gay man named Kobayashi who gave her a cell phone. They then meet Chieko, and all three leave voice messages on the phone, stating that they are interested in meeting with older men that day.

Planning to go to the beach together soon, they meet with Chisa and go out to buy swimwear. While shopping, Hiromi finds a topaz ring on sale. She cannot afford it, but plans to gather the money and return to buy it before the shop closes later that day. All four friends then go to karaoke with an older man, who pays the cost of the ring in exchange. Despite this, Hiromi refuses to take the money for herself, insisting that they split the money evenly. Shortly after, the four part ways.

Hiromi receives a phone call from a man named Yoshio, who says that his kitten is sick and he is leaving Kobayashi. She then checks the messages she has received from interested men. She contacts one of the men, Uehara, and takes a taxi to meet him. Uehara takes her to a video rental store, with Hiromi posing as his girlfriend. There, they go to the adult video section, where Uehara grabs Hiromi's hand and uses it to masturbate. Disgusted, Hiromi runs away; Uehara pays her anyway.

Hiromi receives a call from Kobayashi, where she relays the information she had heard from the previous call. She chooses to meet another man who had left a message, who calls himself Captain EO, and carries a Fuzzball stuffed animal. The two go to a love hotel, where they talk and Hiromi fixes the stuffed animal. Hiromi takes a shower, but Captain EO intrudes, berating her for choosing to go on a date with him. He admits that he had planned to assault Hiromi, rape her, and steal her money, but does not. He pays her very little, and leaves.

Hiromi meets Kobayashi to return the cell phone. He thanks her for saving his cat's life, but says that he and Yoshio had broken up. Hiromi repeats one of Captain EO's remarks, to which Kobayashi replies that whoever had said that must see great value in her. Hiromi then returns home, and ruminates on her life and her failure to buy the ring before falling asleep.

Cast

 * Asumi Miwa - Hiromi Yoshii (吉井 裕美)
 * Kirari - Chisa Noda (野田 知佐)
 * Hirono Kudō - Nao Yokoi (横井 奈緒)
 * Yukie Nakama - Chieko Takahashi (高橋 千恵子)
 * Mitsuru Hirata - Kagegawa
 * Mitsuru Fukikoshi - Yoshimura
 * Moro Morooka - Yazaki
 * Tooru Tezuka - Uehara
 * Ikkei Watanabe - Kobayashi
 * Tadanobu Asano - Captain EO
 * Kotono Mitsuishi - Radio DJ (voice)
 * Akira Ishida - Yoshio (voice)
 * Megumi Hayashibara - Telephone Dialing Voice
 * Nana Okada - Hiromi's Mother
 * Leo Morimoto - Hiromi's Father

DVD variations
An SR-Ban version was released in Japan on 24 July 2003. Apparently, it is the director's cut, has two minutes of extra footage and has been transferred directly from the original tape, whilst the American and Japanese DVDs appear to come from a different source. The American version appears to be the original interlaced version, whilst the Japanese, non-director's cut, appears to have been de-interlaced and given the impression of a pseudo-progressive style. Both non-director's cuts have more subdued colors, whilst the director's cut is more vivid and the motion is fluid. This fluidity in motion is due to the 60 fps high frame rate, compared to the normal 24 fps frame rates on the non SR-Ban DVDs.