In the Realm of the Senses

“Never before had a man and a woman loved each other so intensely.”

Sada Abe (Eiko Matsuda), a former prostitute working as a maid in a 1936 inn, catches the eye of its master, Kichizo Ishida (Tatsuya Fuji), and the two begin an affair that soon pushes everyone else out of the picture. Nagisa Ōshima built the film on a real murder case and shot the sex without simulation. It treats desire as a force that can take over a life completely, and it does not look away from where that leads.