8.5/10
Barely recognizable as a Sion Sono film, The Land of Hope is a drama about three couples affected by radiation fallout from a local nuclear plant explosion - an elderly couple, their son and his girlfriend, and their neighbors. The elderly couple elect to stay, despite their proximity to the contaminated zone, while the neighbors head for a shelter and to hunt for their adult son's girlfriend's parents, and the son and his pregnant, "radiophobe" girlfriend coming to terms with living with radiation. The movie features numerous moments of tragedy and sadness, although I feel like in his attempt to do something dramatic, Sono turns the volume up a little too high - overbearing "dramatic" music threatens to distract too often and the performances occasionally dip into weepy mawkishness. If this were an American director and an American movie, we'd be tagging it "Oscar bait". All that aside, the movie still works - it's saddening and affecting and a refreshing change from Sono's last couple of inconsistent outings.
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