In the Realm of the Senses

Director: Nagisa Ōshima

1976 / 102min / 35mm

Banned in the USA—and still censored in Japan—Oshima’s unsettlingly erotic, explicit taboo-buster dramatizes the true story of Sada Abe, who in 1936 was embroiled in a scandal in the violent aftermath of a destructive, all-consuming love affair. Eiko Matsuda and Fuji bare all as partners—she obsessive in her lust to possess him; he insatiable in his appetites, but curiously and magnetically opaque in his attitudes, matching Oshima’s coolly objective approach—in a dangerous game of hardcore sadomasochistic brinkmanship, set against a backdrop of rising imperialism and a world gone mad. “A richly discomfiting piece of work… This profoundly anarchic film is as tightly controlled and precisely calibrated as a tea ceremony.” —Dave Kehr, The New York Times

Q&A with Tatsuya Fuji, moderated by Steve MacFarlane on Saturday, July 20th, courtesy of Japan Society