Ai no borei (1978)

Director:

Nagisa Ôshima

Writers:

Itoko Namura (novel)
Nagisa Ôshima (writer)

Release Date:

26 March 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

A young man has an affair with an older woman. He is very jealous of her husband and decides that they should kill him...

Plot Keywords:

Well | Ghost | Japan | Small Village | Murder

Awards:

3 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Tatsuya Fuji	...	Toyoji
Kazuko Yoshiyuki	...	Seki
Takahiro Tamura	...	Gisaburo
Takuzo Kawatani	...	Inspector Hotta
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Akiyoshi Fujiwara
Masami Hasegawa	...	Oshin
Kenzô Kawarasaki
Tatsuya Kimura
Eizo Kitamura
Akiko Koyama	...	Mother of Landowner
Osugi	...	Dancer
Sumie Sasaki	...	Odame
Takaaki Sugiura
Taiji Tonoyama	...	Toichiro

Also Known As:

Empire of Passion (USA)
Empire of the Passions
Fantôme amour (France)
In the Realm of Passion (USA) (video title)
L'empire de la passion (France)
Phantom Love
The Ghost of Love

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Japan | France

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) (re-rating) (2004) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) (1994) | Canada:18+ (Quebec) (original rating) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) (1994) | Canada:R (Ontario) (1994) | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 (1997) | Finland:K-18 (1979) | South Korea:18 | Sweden:15 | New Zealand:R18 | Portugal:M/16 | Italy:VM18 | Australia:R | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Argos Films

Trivia:

While filming the scene where Toyoji tries to break into the burning house by ramming the door down, Tatsuya Fuji tore three ligaments in his shoulder and dislocated his arm. Three days later, he was back on the set filming the scene where he was being hung from a tree and beaten, with his arm still in a sling (although removed between takes).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Radio On (1980)

Eros and Thanatos

Eros and Thanatos, Love and Death command the dialectics of Life. By the end of 19th century in a remote Japanese village a young man and a married woman, older than he, fall in love with each other and decide to kill her husband to be free to enjoy their love. But they never enjoy that freedom since Remorse begins to haunt them beginning as usual at the time by the weakest member of the couple, the woman of course. Henceforth in an atmosphere where dream (nightmare) mixes up with reality the ghost of the murdered husband appears first to the woman but then also to the man. It also haunts the dreams of the other villagers creating a climate of suspicion and gossip around the couple which is aggravated by the arrival of a police officer that comes to investigate the disappearance of the murdered husband. But which makes this movie more interesting besides this almost common story of adultery is the evolution of the couple's feelings in a Shakespearean deep psychological and dramatic development of remorse, anguish and fear which turns their love relationship into a nightmare until their final doom. The expressionism so dear to Japanese theatre or movie acting is also present in the players' performances but not in an exaggerated form. Just only in the necessary measure to show more effectively the most deep feelings of the depicted characters. This is indeed a solid good movie.