Guilty of Romance

Guilty of Romance
UK VHS cover
Directed bySion Sono
Screenplay bySion Sono
Story byMisue Kunizane
Produced byYoshinori Chiba
Nobuhiro Iizuka
StarringMiki Mizuno
Makoto Togashi
Megumi Kagurazaka
CinematographySōhei Tanikawa
Edited byJun'ichi Itō
Music byYasuhiro Morinaga
Production
companies
Distributed byNikkatsu
Release date
  • 12 November 2011 (2011-11-12)
Running time
144 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Guilty of Romance (恋の罪, Koi no Tsumi) is a 2011 Japanese erotic romantic thriller film directed by Sion Sono. Sono's screenplay is based on a story by Misue Kunizane, which was inspired by the 1997 murder of Yasuko Watanabe. The plot follows two interweaving storylines, the first involving the investigation of a murder in a Tokyo love hotel district, the second about a neglected wife (played by Sono's wife Megumi Kagurazaka) seeking her carnal desires through nude modeling and prostitution.

Two versions of the film exist: the original Japanese cut (144 minutes) and an international edit (113 minutes). The former is currently unavailable outside of Japan, France, Germany, and the United States.