For better or for worse, there aren't a lot of movies out there like In the Realm of the Senses. Well, there's porn, but this isn't really porn -- it lets the ugliness as well as the beauty of sex shine through, and through all the cinematographic haze it seems considerably more real than depictions of sex in even "regular" movies.
There's a narrative here, told through the slowly-unfolding patterns of debauchery, one of a terrifying spiral of hedonism. In the end, despite all of its explicitness, it's more of a conservative cautionary tale than anything else.
What makes In The Realm of the Senses work as well as it does is the beautiful images and almost mystical pacing of director Oshima. I won't lie and say that there aren't times when the film is tedious and even dull, or that its final conclusion is extremely profound. But it's one hell of an experience, and a disgusting gonzo film that needed to be made. It's one of those films that you don't watch, you live through.
There's a narrative here, told through the slowly-unfolding patterns of debauchery, one of a terrifying spiral of hedonism. In the end, despite all of its explicitness, it's more of a conservative cautionary tale than anything else.
What makes In The Realm of the Senses work as well as it does is the beautiful images and almost mystical pacing of director Oshima. I won't lie and say that there aren't times when the film is tedious and even dull, or that its final conclusion is extremely profound. But it's one hell of an experience, and a disgusting gonzo film that needed to be made. It's one of those films that you don't watch, you live through.