In the Realm of the Senses

NEW 35mm PRINT!  │  Is it porn or is it art? One of the most controversial films in the history of cinema, Oshima’s much-censored In the Realm of the Senses was a landmark in the serious artistic treatment of explicit sex on screen. In the Realm of the Senses — the Japanese title, Ai no corrida, translates literally as “corrida (or bullfight) of love” — is based on an actual incident that sent shock waves through Japanese society. In 1936, at the height of Japanese militarism, a young geisha was found wandering the streets of Tokyo with a severed penis in her hand. Her lover had apparently allowed himself to be strangled and mutilated at the height of sexual ecstasy. Unaccustomed to public revelations of sexuality, many Japanese women took the young woman to heart, and she became a feminist symbol. Oshima, who has often used shocking sex and violence to rail against social and political repression, casts the incident in a similar light. His graphic recreation of the bizarre affair rejects the traditional, oppressive roles of geisha and master, and shows instead an all-consuming sexual relationship based on equality. Three decades after its initial release, In the Ream of the Senses may have attained the venerable status of cinema classic, but it has lost little of its taboo-breaking power to incite, inflame, disturb and offend — and, in the uncut form screening here, it is still banned in more than a few places. Colour, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles. 105 mins.