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A tense and intimate moment between a man and a woman in old-fashioned Japanese garbs make up most of this exceedingly text-littered poster for Nagisa Ôshima's In the Realm of the Senses
In Japan in the 1930s, the young woman Sada is increasingly obsessed with her lover Kichizo, despite his married status, and her urge to possess him only increases.
In the Realm of the Senses is written and directed by Nagisa Ôshima (Ai to kibô no machi (1959)). The original Japanese title translates to, 'bullfight of love'. It is a fictionalized account of the real-life sensational murder of her lover by Sada Abe in 1936.
Ôshima's film is a blindingly strange and uncompromising one with sexual malaise, a psycho-sexual relationship in which the sexuality becomes all-encompassing and fatal. Shockingly explicit, - SPOILER including a scene in which Sada pinches a naked boy's penis, - In the Realm of the Senses is hard to watch, heavy as well, and inauspicious as a date movie. It is nevertheless a remarkable film.
Watch a scene from the film here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: In excess of 7.65 mil. $ (France and West Germany alone)
= Uncertain but likely at least a huge hit
[In the Realm of the Senses premiered 15 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 108 minutes (original cut)/102 minutes (producers' cut). The film's explicit sexual content meant that it would not pass Japan's censorship: Ôshima planned to get around this by making it as a French production in Japan, and shipping the film to France for post production. Shooting took place in Kyoto, Japan. Despite optically censoring, reframing and blurring his film to appease the censors, Ôshima was nevertheless sued with obscenity along with a man responsible for a book release based on the film. Both were found not guilty in 1979 and again in 1982. The film was met with outrage, longer or shorter bans and extraordinary interest in most countries it was released in. In France and Germany alone it sold 2.4 mil. tickets, grossing 7.65 mil. $. It also grossed 1.4 mil. SEK in Sweden. The film's cost and world gross is regrettably unknown, but it was likely a huge hit. Ôshima returned with 3 TV credits prior to his theatrical return Empire of the Senses/Ai no bôrei (1978). Eiko Matsuda (Jack no irezumi (1970)) returned in Ôoku ukiyo-buro (1977); Tatsuya Fuji (Radiance/Hikari (2017)) in Empire of Passion. In the Realm of the Senses is fresh at 84 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of In the Realm of the Senses?
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