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In the Realm of the Senses (2009)

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Critic Reviews: 1
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 0

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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 5,062

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Movie Info

Based upon a true incident in 1930s Japan, Nagisa Oshima's controversial film effectively skirts the borderline between pornography and art -- making Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris of four years earlier look like children's programming in comparison. The story concerns servant and former prostitute Sada Abe (Eiko Matsuda) who becomes sexually obsessed with her employer Kizicho (Tatsuya Fuji), a businessman, after seeing him making love to his wife. After making love to Sada, Kizicho

NC-17, 1 hr. 48 min.

Drama, Romance, Art House & International

Nagisa Oshima

Apr 25, 2000

Surrogate

Cast

All Critics (37) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (29) | Rotten (6) | DVD (14)

That graphic sexual expression is the narrative currency Oshima uses to explicate a connection between sex and death only adds to the film's incalculable power to provoke, offend, frighten, and spellbind its audience.

November 27, 2011 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comment
ColeSmithey.com

Oshima holds nothing back. Yet watching the couple's constant lovemaking is the very opposite of erotic. Which may very well be the point. Sada and Kichizo's fantasy world is strictly private; it doesn't just shut out society, it excludes the viewer too.

October 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Movie Talk | Comment

Declaring yourself bored by a movie full of explicit sex may sometimes mark you out as a dreary pseudo-sophisticate, but in this case it's fair enough.

September 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]

I still find In the Realm of the Senses impressive but it now puzzles and worries me.

September 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | Comment
Observer [UK]

Ai No Corrida is an undeniably powerful, stylish and impressive piece of work.

August 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Unsanitised, worryingly convincing in its sadomasochistic detail, this is seriously provocative cinema, a telling reminder of what it really means to be dangerous.

August 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

As the soundtrack moans in sympathy while the deep crimson colours dazzle in delirium, the entire movie comes desperately close to approximating the pell-mell emotional turmoil of sex itself. Not porn, sex.

August 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]

One of the most extraordinary moments in screen history. Oshima's film widens and deepens the sensual realm.

August 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

A graphic and extremely disturbing exploration of lust and love that deserves its reputation as a classic of world cinema.

August 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Express | Comment
Daily Express

It was made 33 years ago but Nagisa Oshima's doomed lust classic doesn't look in the least bit dusty. Quite the opposite.

August 29, 2009 Full Review Source: This is London | Comment
This is London

I can only imagine critics at the initial screening ... marveling at a 20-foot penis taking up the entire screen: "Oh yeah, that totally represents the patriarchy."

July 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Like his characters, Oshima is determined to explore and transgress sexual boundaries, if they even exist, by posing a challenge to conventional morality. [Blu-ray]

June 28, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

quickly becomes as monotonous as bluenoses accuse it of being prurient

May 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | Comment
Q Network Film Desk

I believe the children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way. Or, conversely, you could violently yank a four-year-old boy's winkie and make him grow up begging to be choked unto orgasm. Your call.

April 27, 2009 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

To paraphrase a crack from Pauline Kael: light the incense, perverts.

April 27, 2009 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

The Criterion Collection thankfully rescues this controversial Japanese shocker.

April 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Denton Record Chronicle (TX) | Comment
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

Oshima, poses with In The Realm Of The Senses the philosophically seductive question: Does a form of government dictate the way people have sex?

April 12, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

Baring much more than bodies, Oshima delves deeply into subconscious carnal desires under the influence of society, and the eternal human contradictions between liberating sexual impulses and erotic enslavement.

April 12, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

It's more sensational than it is artistically interesting.

June 27, 2008 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for In the Realm of the Senses

A beautiful, but very adult, film. The story is very powerful and kinda crazy, but I think it was actually based on a true story! An excellent movie about obsession.

September 6, 2010
ajv2688

Super Reviewer

Fascinating tale of two lovers who become so obsessed with each other that it eventually consumes them. I lost count as to how many times this couple had sex but it was a LOT. If there ever was a film that could have benefited from a little 'product placement' of Viagra, this would be that film.

January 7, 2009
flixsterman
Randy Tippy

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Im Reich der Sinne (DE)
  • In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no corrida) (UK)
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