In the Realm of the Senses

Rating:
Summary: 5 star movie. No stars for Fox Lorber.
Review:
This is one of the most insulting presentations of a respected film you are likely to see.

I haven't seen the dubbed(!!!) version, but the sloppy cropping really damages the film's meticulous compositions. Nor is the image any too sharp.

And despite the presence of "hardcore" scenes, the film is cut. A brief (and not really sexual) scene involving a child has been removed. The PAL UK DVD has a much better transfer and includes this scene - but it has been optically censored.

Many people won't get this film. If you're looking for porno-style thrills, prepare to be bored. That's not what it's about. This movie is not fast-moving or plot-driven. If you're looking to be aroused, this may or may not do it for you - but I don't think that's the intention either. Nor is it all that shocking, unless you've been really sheltered. This is one of the most deeply emotional motion pictures I've ever seen - but looking at some of the other reviews I can see that not everyone had the same experience. It's a lot closer to Carl Dreyer than anything else - so if you don't have the patience for 'The Passion of Joan of Arc' with it's limited settings and lingering closeups of faces, you probably shouldn't bother with this.

Oshima is criminally underrepresented on video. Long before he made this movie he was one of the most important directors who ever lived. Sadly, most of his greatest contributions are virtually unknown today. In 1960 he made the very high-context 'Night and Fog in Japan,' which was an attempt to make a film that was actually a part of the political discourse of the moment, as opposed to making a film ABOUT those politics. This film similarly uses the sexual act as a means of allowing the audience to participate on a deeper level than as mere spectators. (Of course, anyone who is sitting, watching and waiting for something to happen along the lines of conventional narrative "entertainment" will probably miss the boat entirely.) While I understand that 'Night and Fog in Japan' has a really limited audience even in Japan, I can't imagine why such essential films as 'Death by Hanging' and 'Ceremonies' have fallen into almost complete obscurity. It's a sad state of affairs.

Rating:
Summary: Eww.
Review: Some reviewers have commented that all this movie is is a bunch of sex scenes. Actually, I would love to watch a *sexy* movie with a bunch of sex scenes, but that isn't what this is. Lots of scenes are really gross, to me anyway. He puts a boiled egg inside her and she squeezes it out again, she clips off some of his, um, hair and eats it, he rapes an old lady...it's pretty grim and pointless. My husband and I saw this in a theater, and we walked out.

Rating:
Summary: In the Realm of the Senses
Review: The best movie of life in japan i`ve seen and i have several. But they don`t reach this movie. It was very daring. ( I liked the crotch shots) My other movies seem in complete. This movie made you want to live there in those times!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Not worthy of a glance!
Review: This was the worst film I have ever seen. I did not find anything erotic in this film. It seemed like if these characters were going to the toliet!! A big disappointment!

Rating:
Summary: I'm totally speechless.
Review: Apart from the ending, everything in this movie is real. You have to see at least one real movie about love and fatal obsession in your life, and well, that Michael Douglas - Glenn Close movies wont cut it. ( get it - cut it?? ). Anyway, if your quest for erotica doesn't venture past the teletubbies, then it's probably a good idea that you don't see this flick. But if you totally open minded, you will see a movie that was years ahead of it's time. You will never see Erotica with this kind of acting and script ever again. If this is the uncut version, and you're a guy watching it with somebody, I'd suggest you wear thick jeans or bring a pillow, you'll see why.

Rating:
Summary: Get the GOOD version...
Review: The version I bought from Amazon is the more expensive of the two offered (with the "World Classic Cinema" side bar on the front). Imagine my surprise when a Greek friend showed me her version that she got as a freebie from some Greek movie magazine, and the video quality is 10 times better! My full-screen version (which hers isn't) I paid money for looked like somebody hid in the theatre and filmed it with a camcorder. Her free version she got from a magazine is NOT full-screen and has outstanding picture quality. So obviously there must be a better, digitally cleaned-up version out there. I would try to find that one if you can. In the states, they're probably waiting until lots of people buy the fuzzy, grainy version so they can do a second issuing of the DVD with "improved video and never before seen outtakes!" and make the money twice from the poor saps who bought the first one.

Now, as for the movie, it's okay. Yes, it verges on porn at times, but compared to the porn I've seen (not a lot, but some), it's way weird to see real acting going on in the same movie. It does an okay job of exploring sexual obsession, but there are a few scenes that seem superfluous to the idea the film is trying to get across. You only have to see the female lead obsessing over her lover's... uh... "pride and joy" so many times to get the idea she's a little off-kilter sexually.

Worth watching, but nothing fabulous.