Nagisa Oshima on In the Realm of the Senses
April 30, 2009
The following article, based on an interview with Nagisa Oshima conducted by Katsue Tomiyama in April 1983, first appeared, in slightly longer form, in the Japanese magazine Read more »
- Japan
- 1976
- 102 minutes
- Color
- 1.66:1
- Japanese
- Spine #466
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 & CreditsOpen
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 CurrentView the Current »
Film Essays
In the Realm of the Senses: Some Notes on Oshima and Pornography
By April 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 Read more »
Clippings
On Oshima
March 15, 2011
Fans of Nagisa Oshima will be interested to hear that critic Jonathan Rosenbaum has posted on his blog his entire 2008 Artforum essay “The Sun Also Sets,” which was also reprinted in his 2010 book Goodbye Cinema Read more »
IN THE REALM OF JAMES QUANDT
June 11, 2009
Close Criterion collaborator and friend James Quandt, longtime senior programmer at the Cinematheque Ontario and whose theatrical traveling retrospectives are always major events in the film Read more »
Press Notes
PRESS NOTES: THE NOTORIOUS OSHIMA REVISITED
May 04, 2009
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 Read more »
