Ai No Korîda [In the Realm of the Senses] **** (1976, Tatsuya Fuji, Eiko Matsuda, Aoi Nakajima) – Classic Movie Review 9393

Writer-director Nagisa Ôshima’s disconcerting passionate sexual drama 1976 Ai No Korîda caused a wave of controversy and was long banned in the UK.

This ‘Last Tango in Tokyo’ was finally approved for public screening by the British censors in 1991 (it was released as In the Realm of the Senses in the UK on 3 May 1991) and we got to see a heady brew of sexuality and sadism and death that Yukio Mishima or Jean Genet would have enjoyed.

The disturbing, uneasy, provocative erotic tale, set in the 1930s and based on a true story, about a geisha Sada Abe (Eiko Matsuda) who has an insatiable passion for her married master Kichizo Ishida (Tatsuya Fuji) is a powerful magnet if you have the taste and stomach for it.

Be prepared for explicit art-house-style sex and a gruesome amputation as the duo pursue their torrid affair into the realm of a death wish.

Ai No Korîda is also known as In the Realm of the Senses, The Empire of Senses, Empire of the Passions, Empire of the Senses, and L’Empire des Sens.

1978 sequel: Empire of Passion.

Also in the cast are Aoi Nakajima, Meika Seri, Yasuko Matsui, Kanae Kobayashi, Taiji Tonoyama, Kyôji Kokonoe and Naomi Shiraishi.

It is an important controversial film and one of Steven Schneider’s 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. The US posters advised: ‘No one under 17 admitted’.

Ai No Korîda [In the Realm of the Senses] is directed by Nagisa Ôshima, runs 109 minutes, is made by Argos Films, Shibata Organisation, Ôshima Productions, is released by Towa (1976) (Japan), Argos Films (1976) (France) and Surrogate (1977) (US), is written by Nagisa Ôshima, is shot in Eastmancolor by Hideo Ito, is produced by Anatole Dauman and is scored by Minoru Miki.

Other versions run 107 minutes (2000 re-release), 98 minutes (DVD), 102 minutes (final) and 94 minutes (reconstructed version).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9393

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