In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Oshima, 1976): Japan / France

Reviewed by Byron Potau.  Viewed on DVD.

With so many films that break new ground in controversial areas, there is the question of whether the film goes too far or not.  In the case of Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses, the quantity and extreme nature of the scenes do not bother me, but the lack of non sex scenes compel me to say the film has gone to the side of “too far”; however, that does not mean that certain viewers cannot get anything out of it.

Based on the true story from the 1930’s of Sada Abe and Kichizo Ishida, the film tells the story of Sada (Eiko Matsuda), a former prostitute who now works at a restaurant and begins a highly sexual affair with the married owner, Kichizo (Tatsuya Fuji).  Their insatiable sexual desires lead to experimental and bizarre sexual practices including beating each other and asphyxiation during orgasm.  As Kichizo is still married, Sada has some feelings of jealousy toward Kichizo’s wife, but this does not stop either of them from encouraging each other to have sex with other people.

The viewer’s reaction to this film will depend greatly on the viewer’s outlook on sex.  Some may find the film erotic and passionate while others may find it repulsive and disgusting.  Either way, the viewer should be forewarned that there are an inordinate amount of sex scenes in the film and some of the sex acts are bizarre and explicit.  What took away from the film was the repetitive nature of many of the sex scenes.  Several times I felt as if I had just seen the same sex scene five minutes earlier.  The sex scenes occur so often, in what feels like every other scene, that it is numbing, and the scenes lose the feeling of passion and eroticism that they might otherwise have had.  The actors are very good in their conveyance of passion, sexual liberty, and sexual pleasure, but they are given little chance to do anything else as, unfortunately, director Oshima did not explore these characters any further outside their sexual relationship.  Still, the film is of interest due to its being based on a true story that was a national scandal in 1930’s Japan.