Film director Sion Sono, whose 2018 releases include the smash hit "Shinjuku Swan" starring Go Ayano, "Love & Peace," and "Real Onigokko," released a collection of poetry and essays titled "I Won't Accept It" on June 19th. Known for films like "Love Exposure" and "Cold Fish," which tackle violence and sexuality, Sono has released a string of controversial works, including "Himizu" and "Land of Hope," which focus on nuclear power plants. Between May and September of this year, four films will be released in a short space of time: "Shinjuku Swan," "Love & Peace," "Real Onigokko," and "Everyone's an Esper!" Meanwhile, Sono also debuted as a poet at the age of 17. His numerous poems have appeared in magazines like "Gendai Shi Techo," "Eureka," and "Hotaruyuki Jidai," earning him the nickname "Sakutaro in Jeans" at the time. While director Sono has previously self-published poetry collections, this is his first commercially published collection. With the exception of "Farewell," which was published in "High School Senior Course" when Sono was 17, all of the poems in this book are new and were written specifically for this occasion. Works such as "Moyamoya Moral" and "When I Was 17" reflect Sono's unwillingness to accept conventional wisdom. The essay section includes titles such as "I'm Bored with the Everyday Life of Film," "Japan Killing Its Own Freedom with Self-Restraint Rules," "What Matsumoto Hitoshi's Films Should Be," and "This World Is Full of Darkness." Sono candidly discusses his reasons for releasing four films in such a short space of time and his thoughts on Japan's "arbitrary" self-restraint in creative activities.

About the book, Sono Sion has said, "The pseudo-poems written here contain the essence of what should become poetry that is more than poetry itself. I wrote this book because I felt that literally spewing out and letting out what I had previously dismissed as nothing more than feces, pee, farts, and burps is more important now than dressing up. I wrote this book because I believed that even if something is full of mistakes, as long as it contains just one truth, it should be more valuable than a painting that is simply beautiful. The rest is up to the imagination."

<Book Information>
Poetry and Essay Book "I Will Not Accept"
Author: Sono Sion
Publisher: KADOKAWA
160 pages / 46-format
Date of Publication: June 19, 2015
Price: 1,100 yen