Love and Other Cults is one of the latest in films produced Third Window Films and it is about to hit cinemas and homes in the UK very soon. This is the latest film from Eiji Uchida, director of Greatful Dead (2014) and Lowlife Love (2016). It was produced by Adam Torel of Third Window Films, a person who did a lot to build up the profile of Japanese films in the UK and he has made another cracking title with this twisted romantic saga set in small town Japan and featuring a set of broken characters.
The film is slightly less darker than Eiji Uchida’s earlier works due to its sprightly rhythm and quirky humour but it still gets dark and female characters don’t have a fun time – this was shot under police supervision and the cast features real teen delinquents and the story deals with child neglect, cults, crime and the AV industry – but the never say die attitude of Sairi Itoh is great as she gives a loveable performance as a lost lamb looking for love in all the wrong places. Uchida builds on his earlier work with confidence and there is plenty here to charm audiences.
It will play at the Deptford Cinema on February 13th
It will then be screened at the Derby Quad on March 16 and there will also be a Q&A with director Eiji Uchida!!!
The film will then be released on dual-format Blu-ray/DVD on March 26th. Here’s a trailer:
Love and Other Cults 
獣道 「Kemonomichi」
Running Time: 95 mins
Director: Eiji Uchida
Writer: Eiji Uchida (Screenplay),
Starring: Sairi Ito, Kenta Suga, Kaito Yoshimura, Hidenobu Abera, Antony, Denden, Hanae Kan, Leona Hirota, Tomoko Hayakawa,
Synopsis: Ai’s (Sairi Itoh) has never had a stable home. Her religious mother stuck her in a cult and then she lands with a gang of drug-users and dropouts, a traditional nuclear family and worse. While she bounces around different environments, her classmate Ryota (Kenta Suga) follows a similar path as he falls in with a gang of wannabe yakuza. They harbour feelings for each other but will they be able to express them? It turns out that the two are star-crossed lovers of sorts, destined to meet each other in unsavoury circumstances
This review by Elizabeth Kerr from The Hollywood Reporter tells you about the great performances from its young cast:
“…Love and Other Cults packs a boggling amount of narrative into its lean 95 minutes. At times it can feel like too much, but Uchida juggles his characters’ various arcs efficiently, making every frame and line of dialogue count. An energetic pop-punk sensibility keeps the film moving at a breezy clip…“
This review from Andrew Daley over at Eastern Kicks names it one of the best films of last year!
“…The grunge nature of the film elicits a uniqueness similar to that of the experimental 80s, where money was thrown at the wall of ideas in an attempt to see what works, and in this case it works too well. Eiji Uchida juggles the character arcs neatly in the snappy 95-minute runtime, which seems to fit a mammoth amount of storytelling in where every moment absolutely counts.”