In the Realm of the Senses

Declared obscene in Japan, where it has never been shown in its entirety, Oshima Nagisa's In the Realm of the Senses was shown uncut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976; thirteen screenings were required to satisfy audience demand. The unprecedented explicitness of the sexual acts depicted in the film caused widespread controversy. But this is not a film that sets out simply to shock. Oshima's account of a couple whose sexual obsession finds its ultimate expression in murder (based on a notorious true-life incident in 1936 Tokyo) was animated by deep political convictions.
As Joan Mellen explains, Oshima wished to break with social conventions as well as the filmmaking culture of the past. Refusing to follow the lead of the masters who had gone before him--Mizoguchi, Ozu, Naruse, and Kurosawa--Oshima attacked the sense of victimhood he saw everywhere in his country. In In the Realm of the Senses, Oshima's lovers seek to combat social repression through sexual transgression--but they fail in, as Mellen says, "what may be the most brilliant dystopic vision ever to appear on film." Declared obscene in Japan, where it has never been shown in its entirety, Oshima Nagisa's In the Realm of the Senses was shown uncut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976; thirteen screenings were required to satisfy audience demand. The unprecedented explicitness of the sexual acts depicted in the film caused widespread controversy. But this is not a film that sets out simply to shock. Oshima's account of a couple whose sexual obsession finds its ultimate expression in murder (based on a notorious true-life incident in 1936 Tokyo) was animated by deep political convictions.
As Joan Mellen explains, Oshima wished to break with social conventions as well as the filmmaking culture of the past. Refusing to follow the lead of the masters who had gone before him--Mizoguchi, Ozu, Naruse, and Kurosawa--Oshima attacked the sense of victimhood he saw everywhere in his country. In In the Realm of the Senses, Oshima's lovers seek to combat social repression through sexual transgression--but they fail in, as Mellen says, "what may be the most brilliant dystopic vision ever to appear on film."