This can be seen in his collaboration with Kôji Wakamatsu. The themes of their most highly regarded films tend to be something like adolescent rebellion sex is merely the seasoning.” On the other hand, despite wanting to break away from the perceived weaknesses of many adult films, Ôshima did not dismiss the genre outright. In 1973 he wrote that such films “take sex as their subject matter and not as their theme. This is partly why Ôshima’s three-year period of planning and rewrites sets the film apart from other sex films of the time.īy casting actors who didn’t have a background in adult films and taking his time in pre-production, Ôshima was seeking to make something more than another Roman Porno. Everything would be scripted, shot, and edited in just a matter of weeks. Most Roman Porno films were made with ruthless efficiency. This in turn came about because of the increasing popularity of softcore sex films in the 1960s known as ‘pink films’. It’s important to note that during this time, sex films had become mass-market in Japan with the launch of Nikkatsu’s Roman Porno line in 1971. At this time, it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to finance his films in Japan, the most recent of which was the box-office flop Dear Summer Sister.Īfter deciding to go ahead with the Sada Abe story, Ôshima spent three years in pre-production. Regardless, Ôshima jumped at this chance for creative freedom. I’ll pay for it, that’s all.” Dauman denies having ever mentioned anything about porn, although it’s possible that it was on his mind when he approached Ôshima, as French censorship laws were being lifted during the 1970s.
I’ll leave the content and the actual production to you. According to Ôshima, Dauman approached him and said “let’s collaborate on a film, a co-production. With credits on classics like Marker’s La jetée, Resnais ‘s Hiroshima mon amour, and a number of Godard films, Dauman specialised in auteur cinema. After the Venice Film Festival, Ôshima stopped over in Paris where he encountered producer Anatole Dauman. He may have been beaten to the punch, but Ôshima’s film had its genesis much earlier in 1972. The story caused a scandal in 1930s Japan and Ôshima was not the first to adapt this story to film, with Noboru Tanaka’s film A Woman Called Abe Sada coming out a year earlier, in 1975. A few days later she was discovered wandering the streets of Tokyo holding Kichi’s severed penis. In 1936, Abe accidentally killed her lover by choking him during sex. In the Realm of the Senses tells the real-life story of Sada Abe, a maid who embarked on an affair with her boss Kichi. While the film today receives attention because of its subject matter, the story behind its creation can offer insight into what made In the Realm of the Senses unique from other controversial sex films. He was an intellectual, and a highly political filmmaker. The film’s notoriety stems from its explicit, unsimulated sex scenes, yet director Nagisa Ôshima was not someone who merely traded in prurient shock. 40 years ago, In the Realm of the Senses was released, sparking uproar and an obscenity trial.
0 kommentar(er)
