In the Realm of the Senses

( 9 )

Overview

In 1976, Nagisa Oshima's Ai No Corrida (aka In The Realm Of The Senses) became an international succès de scandale largely thanks to its extensive and explicit sex scenes, which caused some legal trouble in Germany and the United States and courted controversy wherever it played (the film has yet to receive an uncut release in Japan, where it was filmed). However, while Oshima was one of the first filmmakers of note to feature frank and clearly unsimulated erotic scenes in a "mainstream" motion picture, the ...
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DVD (Special Edition / Wide Screen / Subtitled)
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Overview

In 1976, Nagisa Oshima's Ai No Corrida (aka In The Realm Of The Senses) became an international succès de scandale largely thanks to its extensive and explicit sex scenes, which caused some legal trouble in Germany and the United States and courted controversy wherever it played (the film has yet to receive an uncut release in Japan, where it was filmed). However, while Oshima was one of the first filmmakers of note to feature frank and clearly unsimulated erotic scenes in a "mainstream" motion picture, the subsequent appearance of movies like Romance, Baise-Moi, Intimacy, The Brown Bunny and Shortbus has blunted some of the shock of In The Realm Of The Senses, and it's a bit easier now to observe and appreciate the film's other qualities -- the political subtext of the story, the excellent performances by Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda, the carefully controlled visual style -- which were often overlooked during its initial release. The Criterion Collection's 2009 DVD release of In The Realm Of The Senses is easily the best looking and most thorough presentation this movie has received in North America, and should help the film to find a more appreciative and discerning audience. In The Realm Of The Senses has been transferred to disc in its preferred widescreen aspect ratio of 1.66:1; the image is letterboxed on conventional televisions and enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16x9 monitors. The quality of the transfer is nearly flawless, with sharper detail than the film's previous video editions and a rich, satisfying color palate. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono retaining the original mix, and while the improvement in the sound quality isn't as impressive as the picture, the clarity and detail is inarguably impressive. The dialogue is in Japanese, with optional English subtitles but no multiple language options. As one would expect from Criterion, this release includes a number of impressive bonus features, most notably a commentary track from film historian Tony Rayns, who delivers an intelligent appraisal of the film's style and approach, the work of director Oshima, the true story that inspired the picture and sex in Japanese cinema. The disc also includes a short 2003 documentary on the making of the film (featuring interviews with a number of key production personnel), a 1976 television interview with Oshima, Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda, a new interview with Fuji conducted for this release, a handful of brief scenes cut from the film, and the original U.S. release trailer. Finally, the thick and beautifully designed booklet that comes with this set contains a thoughtful, literate essay from Japanese film historian Donald Richie and highlights from a 1983 magazine interview with Nagisa Oshima. In The Realm Of The Senses is far more than "just a sex film," and this DVD release offers a splendid opportunity to investigate its fusion of the sensual and the philosophical.
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Special Features

New Audio Commentary featuring the film critic 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 and U.S. Trailer; ; Plus, a booklet featuring an essay by Japanese film scholar Donald Richie and a reprinted interview with Oshima
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Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide - Jonathan Crow
Shocking in its graphic sexual content and riveting in its portrayal of passion run amok, Nagisa Oshima's brilliant, notorious Ai no Korrida is a cinematic landmark. No film up to that time had seriously explored the potent gray area between art and pornography; in so doing, Oshima exposed and overturned many of the conventions of both. Like vintage Luis Buñuel, Oshima skewers expectations of "proper" art by shocking the audience; instead of Buñuel's slashed eyeballs and cross-dressing lepers, Ai presents the viewer with the actual act of sex. Oshima also exposes the voyeurism inherent in both pornography and cinema in general: virtually every sex scene (and there are many) is either witnessed by a third party or photographed through a window, so that the audience itself feels like a witness. Moreover, Oshima overturns heterosexual pornography's prevailing convention of women's serving men by having Ai's female protagonist dominate her willingly submissive lover. This story was based on a sensational true tale in which an ex-prostitute turned maid wandered the streets of Tokyo, clutching the dismembered organ of her lover after a particularly ecstatic round of lovemaking. She was quickly elevated into a folk heroine for Japan's nascent feminist movement, and least two other films based on her were made: Noboru Tanaka's masterful Jitsuroku Abe Sada (1975) and Nobuhiko Obayashi's post-modern Sada (1998). In Ai, Oshima focuses on how Sada and her lover and boss Kichi transgress all social conventions, from the hierarchical relationship between servant and master to even the distinction between male and female (Kichi at one point wears a woman's kimono and, by the film's end, Sada has a penis). Though Ai no Korrida can be viewed as part of the pinku eiga genre that was quite popular in Japan at the time, its graphic sexual content sparked a number of landmark censorship lawsuits. Sadly, it has never been seen in its native country in its unexpurgated form, though the film did garner much acclaim abroad and cemented Oshima's international reputation as one of Japan's master filmmakers. Though it has accured the musty-sounding title "film classic," Ai no Korrida has lost none of its subversive power to incite, offend, disturb, and arouse.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 4/28/2009
  • UPC: 715515045018
  • Original Release: 1976

    • Rating:

  • Source: Criterion
  • Region Code: 1
  • Presentation: Special Edition / Wide Screen / Subtitled
  • Time: 1:42:00
  • Format: DVD
  • Sales rank: 22,729

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Eiko Matsuda Sada
Tatsuya Fuji Kichi-zo
Aoi Nakajima Toku
Yasuko Matsui Manageress of Inn
Meika Seri Geisha
Akiko Koyama Geisha
Naomi Shiraishi Geisha Yaeji
Taiji Tonoyama Old Beggar
Technical Credits
Nagisa Oshima Director, Screenwriter
Anatole Dauman Producer
Terumi Hosoishi Special Effects
Hideo Ito Cinematographer
Minoru Miki Score Composer
Yoichi Sai Asst. Director
Shigenori Shimoishizaka Set Decoration/Design
Jusho Toda Art Director, Costumes/Costume Designer
Keiichi Uraoka Editor
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Scene Index

Disc #1 -- In the Realm of the Senses
1. Sada [4:02]
2. Old Customer [3:20]
3. Master Of The House [3:45]
4. First Time [3:34]
5. "Unusual Woman" [5:13]
6. Vision With Razor [2:31]
7. Arrival At The Inn [2:26]
8. A Wedding Ceremony [5:29]
9. "Acute Sensitivity" [4:01]
10. "It Knows You Want It" [3:21]
11. Manager Pays A Visit [2:39]
12. Sada Sees Her Patron [4:55]
13. "Slap Me" [4:57]
14. Sustenance [5:02]
15. Child's Play [2:39]
16. Kichi Sees His Wife [3:10]
17. Homecoming With Knife [4:04]
18. "Choke Me" [5:08]
19. Perverts [7:06]
20. The Outside World [2:47]
21. "Strangle Me" [6:33]
22. Approaching Death [2:29]
23. Permission [6:54]
24. "Together Forever" [6:03]
1. Color Bars [:00]
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Menu

Disc #1 -- In the Realm of the Senses
   Play The Movie
   Chapters
   Commentary
      Commentary: On
   Interviews
      Oshma And His Actors
      Tatsuya Fuji
      Recalling The Film
   Deleted Footage
      Play
   US Trailer
   Subtitles
      Subtitles: On
      Subtitles: Off
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 9 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(3)

4 Star

(4)

3 Star

(1)

2 Star

(1)

1 Star

(0)

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Sort by: Showing all of 9 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    Makes Last Tango in Paris look like Bedtime for Bonzo

    This is the story of a former prostitute turned servant and her employer. She watches as he makes love to his wife and developes an obsession for him and he eventually for her. The relationship spins out of control and gets more dangerous in the sex they have. The nudity and sex are explicit and this film is rightfully rated NC17. The end must be seen to be believed. Definately not for the squeamish or the prudish.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted October 1, 2010

    obsession

    what a beautiful and graphic film about the human mind dealing with
    obsession. all actors are wonderful. cinematically this is striking because of it age and setting.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 8, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 29, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 21, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted August 20, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 3, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 12, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 13, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 9 Customer Reviews