IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES

SYNOPSIS:
In pre-war Japan, Sada (Eiko Matsuda) is a new girl at the brothel run by Toku (Aio Nakajima), a way of paying off her bankrupt husband’s debts. Toku’s husband Kichi-zo (Tatsuya Fuji) is sexually aggressive and soon he draws her into his bed – where at first frivolously but soon increasingly intensely, they serve each other sexually – sometimes even in full view of others. Their attachment becomes a sort of escape from their immediate surroundings as Sada becomes literally addicted to Kichi-zo and his penis. Their increasingly exotic lovemaking leads to sado masochism and to its ultimate conclusion – with a bizarre finale.

"The three scenes that were cut in the film’s previous release are restored. The film is now complete, but with its R rating and ‘high level sex scenes’, ‘violence’ and ‘adult themes’ warnings, should be free of misleading howls from people it might offend. They are free to stay away. But what of those whose interest is piqued by the infamy of the film, in which hardly a minute passes without some sexual activity, often actual not just simulated. Well, the story (based on fact) is one about sexual obsession that is certainly stranger than any fiction you may catch on a porn video. It is a good deal more interesting, too, both from the point of view of a social document about Japanese society in the 1930s and as a sex manual. Some critics have labelled this a masterpiece and while the film is cinematically excellent, I won’t go quite that far. In the Realm of the Senses takes us into territory that is - for most westerners - filled with taboos and complexities; everyone knows sex from a different angle, as it were, and our reaction to this film is driven by how each of us views sexuality. As a movie, it is a considerable way outside the standard menu of Anglo-American filmmaking we are used to – whether from the studios or independent filmmakers. It is in Japanese, which distances us a little from the characters, but it is so fluidly directed that it doesn’t matter much. It communicates very easily by pictures alone, subtitles notwithstanding. It is as graphic in its portrayal as a hard core film might be, but shot differently and with a different setting. The film is not made explicitly to be sexually arousing to voyeurs (though it may arouse you) but to tell a story. It is, at the same time, remarkable for its sweetness, which I mean in the sense that the sexual obsession portrayed is conveyed as a simple, pleasure-induced, and selfish activity without malice or evil intent. What’s even more remarkable is that it is Sada who drives and demands the sex, not the man. Indeed, Kichi-zo becomes her willing sex slave, passive and smiling with benign amusement at her clinging to his penis – even on the occasional walkabout. What makes Nagisa Oshima’s direction so effective is his ability to weave together the factual depiction of the sex act with the emotional and social elements, presenting us with the many self-contradictory aspects of love, sex and society. This is a unique film, and far more complex than watching people bonking."
Andrew L. Urban