Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 — Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 ( Blu Ray)
Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 is a highly intimate, at times obsessively focused documentary about a film director who just won’t let go of the love of his life. It’s also a warts-and-all character study of a woman trying to be independent in 1970’s Japan. Filmed in a very lo-fi, crude, and at times up-close manner, it stands as one of the most intimate, at times awkward, yet oddly fascinating documentaries I’ve seen. Here from Second Run is a Blu-ray release of the film- featuring a full & uncut version of the picture, a newly filmed appreciation by author and film critic Chris Fujiwara, and a twenty-page booklet with new writing by author and critic Tony Rayns, and an essay by film writer Ela Bittencourt.
Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 ( aka Gokushiteki erosu: Renka 1974) is, as its title suggests, from the year 1974. It was directed by Yamaguchi, Japan-born Kazuo Hara, who, between the early 1970’s and early 2020’s he, has ten feature lengthy documentary to his name. These go from Goodbye CP (1972), about a group of people with cerebral palsy and how society treats them. The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987), regarding Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran notorious for his protests against Emperor Hirohito, and Reiwa Uprising (2019), regarding an anti-establishment group 'Reiwa Shinsengumi' led by actor-turned-politician Taro Yamamoto.
The film focuses on bespeckled/ bobbed haired Miyuki, who had a child with director Kazuo, before shortly leaving him & moving away from Tokyo to Yamaguchi. In an attempt to try & keep her in his life, he decides to start making a documentary about her, and I’ll admit when I first put the film on, it all felt a little bit too personal/ not terribly interesting.
But within, say, fifteen or so minutes, it clicked with me, and I was pulled in. Firstly, it initially highlights the hope for re-coupling that anyone gets when a relationship splits. Secondly, it shows how fascinating others' lives can be when you're truly a fly on the wall. And lastly, it’s a haphazard/ wonky, spirt rising study of a woman who's trying to find herself and finally manages to stand on her own feet.
The film blends lo-fi/ badly shot footage of Miyuki- in her cluttered/ messy apartment, be it with a string of lovers, be they male or female. At the low lit/ low rent bar she’s worked at. And generally out and about.
For a large chunk of the film, she has an obsession with getting an Afro-Japanese baby, first by sleeping with a black man, and later trying to haphazardly adopt one. And later on in the process, to make things even more awkward/ difficult, Kazuo brings in his female filming assistant, whom he’s started sleeping with.
As mentioned earlier, it gets very up-close and personal, be it placed in the middle of an argument, over the shoulder of someone doing chores/ baby related things, a moment of mechanical sex, and two births- one being very prolonged/ intense- even though it was shot out of focus as Kazuo is so nervous. Also utilised are letters and written texts, which nicely add another personal dimension to the proceedings.
Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 is certainly a very distinctive/ deeply up-close take on the documentary, which initially feels over indulgent/ smugly arty, but if you hang in there, you’ll find a truly fascinating study of humankind.
The region-free Blu-ray takes in an HD scan of the film, but really you wouldn’t know it- as it’s often shot in haphazard/ on the spot manner. The subtitles are largely clear, with the Japanese dialogue mostly remaining coherent.
On the new extras side, there is a filmed appreciation by author and film critic Chris Fujiwara(10.29). He starts by talking about how the director is largely hidden from the film. He discusses who was in control of the film process, and whether this shifted. He talks about how the picture is presence and absence, and how the drama of the film comes from two protests. On the archive side, we have a 2018 interview with the director (13.53)
Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 sees the documentary form at its most personal & obsessive- but under the surface we find an intriguing, and at points bare to-all study of humanity.