A downtrodden businessman is pushed over the edge after debt-collecting gangsters raped his wife. Shattered and in pain, he makes one last desperate effort at salvaging his male ego by attempting to kill himself along with a call girl. But he can’t go through with the act and the girl runs away at the end. Two years later, the man is now a taxi driver. By chance, he meets the young woman again and, in turn, she wants to commit suicide. Director Shinji Somai imbues arthouse aesthetics into this Roman Porno, featuring characters with complicated inner lives. Love Hotel is far from the skin-deep erotica one may expect from the genre, depicting existential angst in the most glamourous of times.

Shinji Somai (1948–2001) became known for making youth-oriented films with his sophomore feature Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981), an instant sukeban (delinquent girl) classic starring teen idol Yakushimaru Hiroko. Lauded for his stylish long takes, Somai has also experiences with other genres, such Roman Porno and arthouse drama. In 1993, his film Moving was selected by the Cannes Film Festival to screen in the Un Certain Regard section.