In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

aka Ai no Corrida
aka L'Empire des Sens

dir: Oshima Nagisa

The story follows the true-life tale of Abe Sada --"a lady with a past"-- and Ishida Kichizo who show up in the public record in 1936 Japan, with Abe reportedly carrying her deceased lover's severed penis around with her for days before being caught up with by police.

Oshima's screenplay attempts to fill in the gaps left in the wake of stories run in the papers who sensationalized this scoop in its day. The resulting is Oshima's most notorious work, serving as suitable project for French co-producer Daumin's bequest to make a porno flick, a la art house of course.

If the original motive to be so graphic was to shock through transgression of the cultural norms, perhaps today the shock is more subdued. Still, there is an undeniable beauty captured rather heroically here, tense because of the tenuous line Oshima is walking, and often reminiscent of Edo-period shunga woodblock prints.

Matsuda Eiko's body is well-formed, all the right curves, her back arched over Kichizo as she straddles him. Fuji Tatsuya's face is glorious in close-up, his bone structure soft and even. In keeping with character, Fuji begins to eschew food, his body becoming increasingly leaner, described by Oshima as beautiful like a holy man.

In comparison with film's companion piece, Empire of Passion (1978), both concern couples blind to the world because they are consumed with their passion for each other, though the genre and tone of each film couldn't be further apart. Still, Fuji Tatsuya stars in both, taking on the aggressor role in Empire's pairing. Both films circumscribe a descent into the lunatic aspects of human love and lust; and for both not ending particularly well, they share that quirky narrative device: the disembodied voice of moral closure.