Love & Peace [Blu-ray]

Having seen only one Sion Sono film before (the very much for grown-ups "Love Exposure"), "Love and Peace" took me very much by surprise with its all-ages tomfoolery. Imagine a cross between a Kaiju monster movie, Toy Story (with lo-fi pupperty instead of hi-fi Pixar animation) and the David Essex 70s rockstar musical "Stardust", and you'd be pretty much there. I was hooked 5 minutes in; it slightly outstays its welcome, but there's nothing else quite like it.

As a fan of Sion Sono since 2001's Suicide Club it's always exciting to see where he goes next, although these days it's not always easy to keep up with his increasingly prodigious output when so few distributors are willing to release contemporary Asian films. Kudos to Third Window then, for continuing to bring us great titles, and make no mistake, this is one of their best. A family film, no less, and one which defies easy categorisation. A rags to riches story about a would be pop star and his friendship with a pet turtle, to say more about the plot would rob you of the surprises in store. Ridiculously entertaining, funny and heartwarming. You may end up (like I did) shedding a few tears by the end. Oh, and did I mention that it's one of the best Christmas films ever?

Another must-see Sion Sono movie. It's quite a departure from the likes of 'Love Exposure', 'Tokyo Tribe' or 'Cold Fish', but, then again, his wild creativity and productivity know no borders. The story is so strange and maybe I would've enjoyed the movie even better seeing it in December, because of the Christmas feels. Highlights are the songs and the toys, who are the real heart of this movie.Also, thank you Third Window Films for yet another quality product. Keep up the good work!

Beautiful Japanese movie . I didn't expect it to be so weird. But I was happy in a very positive way. Sion Sono still shows us how eclectic he can be.

Sion Sono has made some fantastically strange films, but they have in general been extremely adult affairs. This one is lacking many of the extremes he's known for but is still incredibly weird in a truly glorious way that's a much easier entrance point to Sono's work than great, but very on the edge, films like Tokyo Tribe and Cold Fish. Plenty to smile and laugh at, some oddly catchy songs (given they're in Japanese) and a heartwarming story about some of life's overlooked outsiders.

An AMAZING movie!!!Even though it is, fairly, low budget, and it appears as a children's phantasy movie at first, there are lotsof hidden meanings, camouflaged behind the phantasy element, resulting in lots of morals from this story,covering various aspects of society, Japanese society to start with but also, more broadly, society generaly.And always a strong comic element coexisting with the, escentialy, tragic main story.CERTAINLY worth seeing, says I.

I loved this film and I think this is a film that deserves to be seen by a wide audience.

Love and Peace is a mixture of reality and fantasy. It portrays aspects of Japanese life in a very accurate way and then takes you into a magical world.