| Overview: | Ono plays video games and dreams of directing porn. As a young porn actor he was known as a "juice" man for his ability to produce photogenic amounts of seminal fluid on cue. That would be quite enough success for most young men, but like so many actors before him, Ono is earnest in his desire to direct. Tonight he will get chance on Japan's notorious Paradise TV, an insane 24 hour-a-day sex channel on Tokyo television.
Honeymoon is a documentary on life behind the scenes at Paradise TV, where the realms of capitalism, culture and commerce intertwine. Slovenian director Dražen Štader and his cameras are provided rare access to the inner workings and politics of this strange sex business.
We are introduced to Ono's mentor, Kobayashi, a highly skilled director who abandoned a successful commercial career for the pleasures of working with beautiful Japanese wottmen as a member of the Paradise TV crew. We also meet Narayama, the highly skilled and over-stimulated cameraman whose unexpected outbursts of pleasure provide hilarious distraction.
At the casting call we are enchanted with lovely Makoto, a teenage actress and wannabe adult film star who will be playing a kinky, sadistic mistress in Ono's piece. She is fresh and enthusiastic and we watch as she struggles with her lines and the improvisatory nature of the program she is to star in. This a live call in show and callers will ask Makoto to act out their various sexual fantasies against a tacky and tinsel strewn Christmas Eve set. Makoto and the Paradise TV crew, under Ono's novice direction, will do their best to deliver and satisfy the anonymous desires of all comers.
Honeymoon opens a weird cross cultural window into the awkward and hilarious world of the Japanese adult entertainment industry. Štader moves with a cool detachment, slinking around in the background, capturing the sheer unbridled absurdity of it all, while managing to punctuate his film with unadulterated comic moments of pure philosophical introspection from his surprisingly articulate subjects.
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