Shoujyo, directed by Eiji Okuda, is perhaps the Japanese answer to the classic Lolita (1962,1997), though with a much better karma. A fifteen-year-old girl, Yoko (played by Mayu Ozawa), meets fortysomething Tomokawa (played by the director), a cop eating at a restaurant, and immediately asks for sex. Evidently, her question has been answered affirmatively before with cash, but in time filmviewers realize that she really wants love, which she has been unable to find inside her fatherless home with a selfish mother. Now she discovers what she wants from a lonely police officer, who is also tired of one-night stands. However, the age of consent in Japan is sixteen, so there is trouble ahead. Surprisingly, Tomokawa has already met Yoko's closest relatives. He has befriended her mentally challenged but physically powerful brother Sukemasa (played by Akira Shoji), but he in turn is freaked out when he observes sex in any form, and he later observes the two making out. Tomokawa had an affair some years ago with Yoko's mother, Yukie (played by Mari Natsuki), who is now angry about his cradlerobbing. And Yoko's grandfather (played by Hideo Murota) once gave Tomokawa a special tattoo. Nevertheless, Shoujyo prevails despite family efforts to keep the two apart. Much of the plot focuses on Tomokawa's tattoo, and Shoujyo shows how much she loves him by having her grandfather give her a similar tattoo as if to provide the couple a very special form of permanent union. MH
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