In the Realm of the Senses (1976) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

Still censored in its own country, In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no corrida), by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, remains one of the most controversial films of all time. A graphic portrayal of insatiable sexual desire, Oshima’s film, set in 1936 and based on a true incident, depicts a man and a woman (Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda) consumed by a transcendent, destructive love while living in an era of ever escalating imperialism and governmental control. Less a work of pornography than of politics, In the Realm of the Senses is a brave, taboo-breaking milestone.

WARNING: THIS FILM IS SEXUALLY EXPLICIT

Cast

Sada Abe	Eiko Matsuda
Kichizo	Tatsuya Fuji
Toku	Aoi Nakajima
Inn manager	Yasuko Matsui
Yoshidaya maid	Meika Seri
Old maid	Kanae Kobayashi
Old beggar	Taiji Tonoyama
Patron	Kyôji Kokonoe

Credits

Director	Nagisa Oshima
Producer	Anatole Dauman
Screenplay	Nagisa Oshima
Line producer	Koji Wakamatsu
Consulting producer	Hayao Shibata
Cinematography	Hideo Ito
Lighting	Kenichi Okamoto
Production Design	Jusho Toda
Music	Minoru Miki
Editing	Keiichi Uraoka and Patrick Sauvion
Sound	Tetsuo Yasuda
Costumes	Jusho Toda and Masahiro Kato
Makeup	Koji Takemura

Disc Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
New audio commentary with film scholar Tony Rayns
New interview with actor Tatsuya Fuji
A 1976 interview with director Nagisa Oshima and actors Fuji and Eiko Matsuda, and a 2003 program featuring interviews with consulting producer Hayao Shibata, line producer, Koji Wakamatsu, assistant director Yoichi Sai, and film distributor Yoko Asakura
Deleted footage
U.S. trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by Japanese film scholar Donald Richie and a reprinted interview with Oshima

From the Current

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Perhaps the most shocking thing about Nagisa Oshima’s infamous, hard-core In the Realm of the Senses and savage ghost story Empire of Passion is just how elegant they are, a couple of critics have noted in their reviews of our special edition DVDs. The former, writes Dennis Demody...

Nagisa Oshima on
In the Realm of the Senses

Apr 30, 2009

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In the Realm of the Senses:
Some Notes on Oshima and Pornography

by Donald Richie Apr 30, 2009

The concept of “obscenity” is tested when we dare to look at something that we desire to see but have forbidden ourselves to look at. When we feel that everything has been revealed, “obscenity” disappears and there is a certain liberation. When that which one had wanted to see isn’t sufficiently...

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by Donald Richie Apr 23, 2009

These profiles of the real-life Sada Abé and the actress who portrayed her in Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses first appeared in Donald Richie’s 1987 book Different People: Pictures of Some Japanese, and can also be found in the 2006 Japanese Portraits: Pictures of...