Customer Reviews

Empire of the Passions ( Ai no borei ) ( In the Realm of Passion ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2.4 Import - Australia ]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

we are used to believe that sex and art in movies are hard to combine. A small mistake, a single forced note and the movie will degenerate in a porno movie or just a kitch. Ngisa Oshima has passed this mountain high obstacle at stratosferic altitude.
Lanscapes and interiors interact to call for an atmopsphere of darkness, surreal, sexual passion and murderous instinct. Finaly seeing genitalia in this movie does not appear to be just another porno or gratuitous visual "sensation". The lanscape pictures are also spectacular. "Good" is too little for this movie to say. ATTENTION: MANY CUT VERSIONS IN RENTAL STORES OUT THERE. GET YOUR UNRATED COPY FROM SOMEWHERE OR ELESE YOU DEAL WITH THE "RELIGIOUS SCHOOL" VERSION.

Nagisa Oshima's follow up to his hit IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES is some wath of a disappointment, but is good too, making it so so film (a lot of them). But I do not know why TLA VIDEO AND DVD GUIDE calls it "erotic ghost story of unremitting passion". 1 could be that there was some sex scenes cut from the film (the video cover says it to be 180 mins but TLA says 110 mins), but as IMDB.com recalls that there are no missing scenes reported. Or 2 can be that film reviewers these days have forgotten wath real eroticism is, because there is nothing sexy at all in this film, and the only sex scenes in the film are too dark to see and not that nice to look at. Any way the story line is that a man and the woman he has had a affair with kill her husband to be together, but with a horror twist put into it as the man's ghost comes back to haunt them. Dark and creepy themed film.

1978. Fox. 108 MINS.

Rated R for General Tone and Some Sexuality.

At last, Oshima's movies were produced on DVD with reliable info on English subtitles: all the previous stuff just combined Japanese, French and Chinese wording, misleadingly mentioning a range of language options available.

Although contexts of these movies are understandable even without text ( Ai no corrida- ("In the Realm of the Senses" is a nice soft-porno work exploring mutilation and incest much prior to other Japanese movies of the end of the last twentieth century), The Empire of Passion (L' Empire de la passion / Ai no borei (Original Japenese with French Version Included - No English Options)) is a simple story of lust and love in the Japanese countryside of the ninetieth century fall, where emotions and traditional local mysticism emphasised on a backstage of sexual explorations.

Beautiful cast acting convincingly adds to positive comprehension of this ordinary melodrama.

I love Japanese horror films. This one is creepy and has strong sexual content. I liked the movie but the end wasn't that great.

This film contains so much violence, paranoia, and madness. The story is kinda slow, but the ending is quite heart-shaking and depressing. The cinematography is almost like film noir.

Completely unwatchable drivel. In the Realm of Senses pushed the envelope with its sexual themes and graphic depictions of sexual acts. In the Realm of Passion seems to want to capitalize on that, but it fails miserably. No real plot (some sort of insanity and a ghost story of some kind), sex, and nothing interesting or engaging at all here. Do not bother with this.

In the Realm of Passion is the companion piece to Nagisa Oshima's ... In the Realm of the Senses. The film is a ghost story, dealing with guilt and revenge. Several good scenes. PLEASE SEE MY OTHER REVIEWS.