Past screening

Love Hotel

Directed by: Phil Cox, Hikaru Toda
Runtime: 1hr 20min Year: 2014

Details

Directed by: Phil Cox, Hikaru Toda
Runtime: 1hr 20min Year: 2014
Country: United Kingdom, France, Austria
Topics: Personal Stories

There are 37,000 Love Hotels in Japan visited by 2.8million people a day. An ancient Japanese tradition, the hotels exist for people to escape the conservative structures of their daily lives, to explore their fantasies or just find some privacy.

In a highly structured and conservative society, people need release, somewhere they can unlock their desires and not be judged. The Angelo is such a place. But the Love Hotels are under threat. With an increasingly conformist society the government is cracking down on the industry and many of the hotels face closure.

With unprecedented access to the Angelo’s staff and guests Love Hotel is an extraordinary portrait of what at first seems a quirk in Japanese society but by the end seems like a vital element.