IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES
JapanFrance, 1976
Japanese Title: AI NO KORÎDA
Director: Nagisa Ôshima. Screenplay: Nagisa Ôshima. Cinematography: Hideo Ito. Editor: Keiichi Uraoka, Patrick Sauvion. Set Design: Shigemasa Toda. Music: Minoru Miki (II), Traditional Japanese songs. Wardrobe: Shigemasa Toda, Masahiro Katô. Cast and Characters: Tatsuya Fuji (Kichizo Ishida), Eiko Matsuda (Abe Sada), Aoi Nakajima (Toku), Yasuko Matsui (hotel owner), Meika Seri (Matsuko, maid Yoshidaya), Kanae Kobayashi (Kikuryû, old geisha), Taiji Tonoyama (Old beggar), Kyôji Kokonoe (Ômiya, teacher). Production: Anatole Duman for Argos Films (Paris) – Oshima Productions – Shibata Organisation Inc. (Tokyo). Length: 109’.
Format: Blu-ray. Under licence from Umbrella Entertainment.
Original Version. Subtitles: English
Abe Sada, an orphan girl with a history of sex work, is hired as a maid at a small hotel run by Kichi-San and his wife. Soon after, Kichi-San becomes her lover, thus turning their social relationship upside down.
“Like the character Abe Sada, In The Realm Of The Senses (1974), is inspired by true events that took place in Tokyo in 1936. The unbridled passion that the married Kichi and his maid Abe Sada feel for each other leads to an increasingly rampant sexual relationship that results in the death of the man. The woman completes her triumph over him by cutting off his genitals. While profoundly Japanese, the film is full of the ideas of French philosopher Georges Bataille (1897-1962): physical passion, sexual pleasure, a liking for rule-breaking, and death, are inextricably linked. As with other Oshima films, this film is the depiction of a ritual. An ascetic, quasi-documentary-like rigor in the depiction of repeated sexual intercourse accompanies the relentless figurative elegance of the interiors, based on prints by Japanese 18th century erotic artists.”
(Morando Morandini)
Friday 8th April 2022, h. 9:15 pm
