Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974
Director: Kazuo Hara
Year Released: 1974
Rating: 3.0
Kazuo Hara takes his camera and sound equipment and goes after his ex-wife, feminist Miyuki Takeda, who he had a child with but has since left him to pursue other lovers. It sounds a lot like Ross McElwee's confrontational Sherman's March in which McElwee assaulted and insulted various oddball women with his camera, but the difference here is that Hara is clearly no match for the lashing and venomous Takeda, who wants nothing to do with him and thinks nothing of insulting the child they had together, claiming it is 'weak.' When Hara turns the camera on himself in one scene and he is crying, he may be trying to beg for sympathy, but this backfires and only makes himself appear more foolish. As far as diary films go, this is one of the most unsparing - even when Hara has his new girlfriend interview Takeda (to try to show off), it just turns confrontational and ugly. If you've ever broken up with someone you really cared for and wanted to win him or her back - and even though it's a losing cause you keep trying to reason with him or her anyway - this will serve as a cruel reminder of what happens when love truly dies.
