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In the Realm of the Senses Actors: Tatsuya Fuji, Eiko Matsuda Director: Nagisa Oshima Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Pan & Scan Format: Color Audience Rating: X (Mature Audiences Only) Running Time: 105 minutes Studio: Fox Lorber Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2002-07-23 Buy from Amazon |
 "Poor DVD edition of a great movie"The complaints about the Fox Lorber edition of this movie are unfortunately justified. 7-8 out of the original 104 minutes have been cut, reducing the movie to about 96-97 minutes. The movie is reproduced poorly in pan-scan. The scene access is haphazard and often into the middle of a scene and not the beginning (in short useless). The quality of the video transfer is not great, although I would have accepted that if it were not for the butchered editing and cuts. 7 minutes does not seem that serious until you realize the film is robbed of parts or entire scenes which made it shocking and unique (as well as almost banned) at the time. The jacket does not mention the cuts, and lists the original length of 104 minutes. I do not have any other Fox Lorber editions in my library, and this will not make me want to purchase others. The movie is still shocking and fascinating in its portrayal of the main characters as well as the background against which it is set, but the cuts shorten and obscure the key scenes. Hard to say if I would consider the movie pornographic, or even erotic, but it certainly does not lose its impact even though 25 years have passed since I originally saw it when it made its original art-house appearance in the US. I give it three stars only because of the original material, and not this DVD edition. This is a unique piece of moviemaking considering the original 1976-77 release date, and to my knowledge there is currently no better alternative in the US. I would suggest to anyone who decides to purchase this DVD to look up and read one of the detailed reviews and synopsis of the movie online, to get a better idea of the missing material.  "Intriguing Film, Horrific DVD"I like Asian cinema. I really haven't seen all that many of these types of films, but the few I viewed over the past two or three years were excellent in terms of plot, special effects, and cinematography. The best thing about films from Japan and Hong Kong, and let's face it, these are the ones we're all talking about, is their non-western views about movie violence and adult situations. These guys are simply more willing to push envelopes we wouldn't think of touching. Well, "In the Realm of the Senses" not only pushes envelopes, it shreds them into tiny pieces. This taboo busting film claims a real event in 1930's Japan as the basis for a love story the likes of which you have rarely seen. This is the type of celluloid nightmare that stays with you long after the closing credits fade into darkness. "In the Realm of the Senses" mixes pornography, psychotic obsession, and grisly special effects to produce a volatile cocktail that will ambush those individuals not used to extreme cinema. Set in a Japan gearing up for war, "In the Realm of the Senses" introduces the viewer to a brothel where the young Abe Sada works. One of the regular customers is Kichizo, an older married man who enjoys the company of the geishas. It isn't too long before Sada and Kichizo meet, and the two rapidly move into deeper and deeper realms of obsession and sexual adventure. The game, although it sure doesn't seem like a playful adventure, transmogrifies into open menace on the part of Sada, who threatens to maim or kill Kichizo if he pays the slightest attention to his wife. Even the other women in the brothel become fearful and chary about the strange events unfolding between the two lovers. Sada and Kichizo stay in a single room for days, without bathing or cleaning the floors. The obsession the two possess for each other often causes day-to-day worries to fade into the background. Things sink to such a bizarre level that the conclusion really shouldn't come as a surprise, although it does because of its emotional shot to the stomach. This is an incredible experience that many will not or cannot fathom, let alone comprehend. I'm not sure I understand several of the film's elements, probably due in large part to the atrocious DVD version constructed by Fox Lorber. I recognize this is a foreign film and therefore possibly problematic for English speaking technicians, but this DVD is poorly made. The English subtitles rarely match up with the person speaking; the transfer doesn't look as good as it should, and even when I used the zoom function I knew I wasn't seeing the film the way the director intended. You get glimpses of how good the film must look when properly formatted and fully restored, such as brilliant flashes of color from Sada's kimonos and the lighting used by director Nagisa Oshima STILL looks great despite the bad transfer. A movie this powerful deserves much better than this stilted treatment. I've heard bad things about Fox Lorber concerning other DVD releases, and I tend to believe those statements now after seeing how they butchered this film. I am sure there are numerous subtexts drifting through "In the Realm of the Senses," but I am not sure what they all are. I couldn't help but notice how the rigid Japanese social system repeatedly reared its head. The women all refer to Kichizo as "master" and readily submit to his attentions even when they do not wish to do so. That's what makes the conclusion so surprising; that a woman in Japanese society did what she did must have been absolutely mind blowing to the patriarchal social hierarchy. Another aspect of the film certainly dealt with the war and Japan's machismo based discipline, but I cannot say exactly how it fits into the picture. After all, I only noticed one scene where I saw any soldiers. Is the obsession between Sada and Kichizo paralleled with the deadly obsession Japan had for its war plans? I'm probably reaching badly with this, but Japan's disastrous bid for world domination must play a role in this somewhere. I won't watch this again until a company releases a decent DVD edition. I probably wouldn't watch it again soon anyway because the movie is so darn intense it takes awhile to absorb what you're seeing. It blows my mind that this got a theatrical release in the States back in the 1970s. I'll bet a lot of people had no idea what they got themselves into when they decided to spend a few hours with Nagisa Oshima's psychological tour de force. When they rated it NC-17 for the DVD release, they knew what they were talking about! "Disgusting, Boring, Explicit, and Unusual"If I could be frank, I don't understand why this film is not considered soft-core porn. You actually see his organ in her mouth and they really do have sex and it's not acting, like in most films. I must say that this movie grossed me out, turned me on and made me laugh all at the same time. It is not very long and I didn't really catch that it was a brothel that Sada worked at, so I couldn't figure out why everyone was so okay with them having sex all the time and the amount of voyeurism. I give this film three stars because even though it is hard to watch and does get too monotonous with the sex (that's pretty much all the film is, them having sex) I must commend it for it's exploration of the idea of how sexuality and pleasure can go to the point of death. It's like at the peak moment of sex, nothing else matters except the ultimate pleasure, even death. That's an interesting idea and a more facinating thing is that the store is true, set in 1930's Japan. There are all sorts of gruesome and i-can't-believe-they-filmed-that scenes, such as one involving an egg. The ending made me squirm with repulsion and disgust, and the shocking thing is that they actually show her actions on camera at the end as well. Nothing is censored in this film, which I highly commend, since I am against censorship. I suppose the director wanted to make this film have a raw feel to it and that's why I don't think it's done very tastefully. It is also really suprising that this film was released in mainstream cinemas in America. I don't know what Japan is like as far as explicit "non-porn" films (this film is clearly porn though), but we're so censor-crazy here, so it's suprising and liberating to find out that its release happened. "Explicit art"It was not, to be honest, one of the films in the world I have enjoyed the most. The Japanese fascination with pain is a bit odd to me. But it is well made, and it proved an important point: that the western idea that sex or nudity must not be shown in a serious film is just wrong. It only seems wrong to show nudity or sex when the film makers are trying at the same time *not* to do it. If it is a natural part of the film, there is no problem whatsoever. It is a pity that we can only see sex or nudity in porn films, for they are always attrociously bad.  "A Waste of Time"If you want to watch something erotic, save your money and get something else. I find the self-righteousness and pretentiousness of Japanese cinema in general to be a bit of a joke, and this is no exception. There is nothing redeeming about this movie. The acting is.. well, what acting? The endless sex is non-sequential and torturous to watch. When the movie finally ends, it leaves you nauseated and engrossed, wondering to what you have just subjected yourself. Even a glance of the DVD cover may become unbearable. Instead of turning you on, this movie might turn you way off. |
