Passion(2013)

Passion is a deadpan comedy about Frances-ko, a young woman raised in a convent who calls out to the heavens for knowledge of love and sex. Instead, she hears a voice from below: a human-faced growth between her legs that constantly berates her, calling itself Mr. Koga. Despite the relentless verbal abuse, Frances-ko forms a strange, symbiotic relationship with her tormentor. Based on Kaoruko Himeno's acclaimed 1997 novel, director Ryoko Yoshida crafts this bizarre tale with striking cinematography by Akiko Ashizawa. Mayuko Iwasa delivers a show-stopping performance as Frances-ko, while Kanji Furutachi voices the chauvinistic Koga with hilarious intensity. An eclectic score by experimental composer Otomo Yoshihide completes this singular, darkly comic vision.