Additionally, their passion for each other has also been the topic of some gossip among the hotel personnel, who show their disgust for the open sexuality of the two of them, which Kichizo tries to shrug off while Sada’s reaction becomes increasingly violent.

Nevertheless, their passion for each other takes on rather drastic forms, with Sada insisting on Kichizo to not leave the hotel room and eventually stop sleeping with his wife altogether. They both start an affair, which becomes increasingly serious as they fall for each other, which results in Kichizo’s decision to continue their relationship further away, in a small hotel where they check in as a freshly married couple. While she is mostly disgusted by the male clients, she is, however, quite taken with the laid-back husband of the owner, a man named Kichizo ( Tatsuya Fuji). The story takes place in 1936 when young Abe Sada ( Eiko Matsuda) is a servant working in a hotel, but is also often asked by her female boss to take care of the sexual desires and needs of the customers, since she has been a prostitute in the past. “ In the Realm of the Senses” is streaming on MUBI Europe However, if one was to approach this feature, it is necessary to look beyond singular scenes or images and take a look at the context, the deeper message Oshima is after, since “In the Realm of Senses” above all is a story about taboos and their connection to a repressive society, and its often problematic concept of the body. Knowing the film industry of his home country all to well, especially its link to the censors, Oshima decided early on to find producers outside of Japan, and eventually found them in France in order to make his vision of the story, which, upon its release and screening during international film festivals, was banned in many countries due to its explicit sex scenes.

Many have probably heard about the scandal surrounding Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 feature “In the Realm of Senses”, a story based on an incident involving a woman named Abe Sada, which has been adapted many times in the past as the case sparked quite a lot of controversy at the time.

In the realm of the senses movie