To celebrate the Oshima retrospective over at PFA, I'm writing this blurb for fans who live in the bay area - if you're around, check out some of Oshima's greatest works presented on the big screen. The series starts in late May and runs through the majority of June 2009. Empire of Passion isn't on the list of fllms to be presented (that's why I'm reviewing it here), but it is available on DVD from the Criterion Collection in a nice package with booklet and lots of extra features.

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Empire of Passion (Nagisa Oshima, 1978)

Empire of Passion is part of a dyptic along with its companion piece In The Realm of the Senses. Both films explore sexuality as an act of political resistance and offer unforgetable character studies and dazzling visual styles. In The Realm of the Senses documents two individuals who take sexual obsession to profound extremes and ends with madness, mutliation and death.

Empire of Passion presents a classic Japanese ghost story with modern political sentiments. It is the tale of a wife (Seki) and her lover (Hiroshi) who murder her husband and hide his body in an abandoned well. The other residents of their village stimulate guilt, paranoia and repulsion, pushing them to the edge of sanity and their eventual capture.

Oshima uses strong iconic images that leave lasting impressions. Seki is married to a rickshaw driver and the symbol of the wheel spinning relentlessly is used as a leitmotif for his existence. His ghost uses it to deliver her to the land of the lost; the wheel spins in their home when his presence is near. Snow and fog are used as natural elements that reflect the characters' inner states, and color is heightened and bleached to reflect the world of the living and the world of the dead.

Empire of Passion has a typically eerie soundtrack from the great Toru Takemitsu that keeps the audience under its spell long after the credits roll. The film plays with conventions of horror and erotic cinema, offering a highly unusual entry that is appropriately difficult to classify. It illustrates Oshima's eye for balance and detail in every frame - it is a work of cinematic virtuosity with a go for the throat emotional intensity that makes for an an unforgettable movie experience.

I have IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES on Criterion Blu-ray but have not had the chance to watch it. Thanks for the great post!!

you're welcome!

be prepared to have your mind seriously messed with (when you view in the realm...).

i picked them both up, i couldn't resist having two oshima films in the collection. the prints look fantastic.

Who neeeds drugs when you have great Cinema:)

Of Oshima the only one I've seen is Cruel Story of Youth, and that was back in high school years and years ago. It's available only on VHS domestically.

I'll have to grab In the Realm and Empire of Passion soon. Have you guys seen any of Yasuzo Masamura's films? Blind Beast!

I saw an incredible double feature tonight at the Oshima retrospective at PFA: Cruel Story of Youth (the title shot in the credits called it Naked Youth) along with Shiro Amacusa, the Christian Rebel.

I may scribble some more about these films later, but I will say in brief that I was really impressed with both. Shiro Amacusa was a relentless samurai tale from the 17th century, where a small collective of Christians, led in part by Amacusa, revolt against severe oppression from the Shogun and his evil henchmen who are out to eliminate Christianity in Japan.

Cruel Story of Youth felt like the Japanese equivalent of Rebel Without a Cause; replete with boy meets girl and things go wrong...really wrong. This film has the audacity of vintage John Waters and a brand of nihilism particular to the Tokyo of the 1960's.

Steve-O,

I haven't seen Blind Beast but I think I noticed it at the video store the other day.

Shiro Amacusa, The Christian Rebel (Oshima, 1953)

An entire troupe of SPOILERS to follow!

I had never seen this film and caught it as kind of a lark because it was playing on a double bill with Cruel Story of Youth (which I had wanted to see for some time).

I was immediately pulled in to the opening scene...you are kind of forced to do so - the camera is pretty far away from the action, and there is very little light, just some moonlight coming in from a few windows. You can see that people are praying, and sure enough, a young man goes up a ladder and opens a sliding door to reveal an altar with crucifix. Soon after that, guards come storming in the room, demand rice-tax and after beating several members of the congregation, they kidnap the pregnant wife of the village leader because they can not pay the rice-tax.

It becomes clear that their village is being severely oppressed by ruthless henchmen who serve the powerful Shogun. It is 1633 and Christianity, brought to Japan by the Dutch, has been outlawed. The villagers are murdered, tortured and maimed for their beliefs repeatedly throughout the first 45 minutes of the film. Just when the audience is about to drop from exhaustion, a group of heroic villagers begin to assemble a resistance led by Shiro, a valiant Christ-figure who resists violence until his people reach their breaking point. Psychological intrigue develops as points of resistance crop up within the samurai who are handing out the punishment. The remainder of the film hangs in the balance of the battle of the oppressed against the oppressors and features some great battle scenes.

The film has many outstanding images that emerge from the unusual ways that Oshima frames his subjects, which are usually obscured from the camera by various obstacles. The film is shot almost entirely in darkness. The one or two exterior daytime shots are drained of light by clouds and fog, as if light were unable to exist in such an environment. There is an incredible soundtrack that throbs along with the suffering of the oppressed. I don't remember who wrote it, but if you could imagine Bartok writing for low strings and Javanese gamelan orchestra, you'd probably have a pretty good idea of what it sounds like.

This is a powerful film, the likes of which I have rarely seen. It's a top-drawer samurai film, an historical reading on religious oppression in Japan, a visual feast of jagged and obscured images, and it all packs a wallop of suspense from start to finish. Unfortunately, the film is rarely shown in the United States, but hopefully will be released on DVD in the coming year. Look for it and check it out if you have the chance - you'll be glad you did.

Cruel Story of Youth (Nagisa Oshima, 1960)

Gangs of SPOILERS lurk within...

This film has been heralded as a Japanese reading on Rebel Without A Cause, but Oshima's camerawork and visual narrative far surpass its American counterpart. As with most of his films, the visual material provides additional narrative and allows the filmmaker to comment on his subject. The use of CinemaScope allows Oshima to frame his male and female leads with a great gulf of space between them.

A young man meets a pretty girl in the streets and saves her from what appears to be a date rape in process. He ends up robbing the molester-to-be, and the two youngsters go on a shopping spree with the money. These teenagers are contrasted by older siblings who are the children of a failed post-war revolution and pronouce gleefully that their generation will not fall prey to naive political pursuits. Instead they rampage the streets like Dostoevsky's "Demons" (nihilists), and prefer motorcycles and switchblades to protest marches and revolutionary pamphlets.

But their fast lane lifestyle catches up with them and the film shows that robbery, deceit and an irresponsible relationship with sex leads to serious and fatal consequences. As it often happens, just as the young couple decides to repent and change their ways the past and the pavement comes to demand retribution.

Phillip, this is the same film I described eariler, 'Ai no borei', that was previously translated as, 'In the Realm of Passion.' Apparently, it has been repackaged as Empire of Passion, but it's still the same poor effort of Oshima, at least poor in my opinion. Most of his other films are better.

i really like empire of passion. it's trying to do something completely different from realm of the senses....it's a ghost story, not an exploration of sexual obsession. i think it achieves what it sets out to do very well.the images are haunting and the acting is superb.

but, to each his own..

The acting was fine, but the story left something to be desired. To me, at least, fine acting in a poor film still makes for a poor film.