In 2023, UCLA conducted a study surveying 1,500 members of Gen Z about sex in the media. Forty-eight percent said that “sex and sexual content is not needed for the plot of most TV shows and movies,” with 51.5 percent wanting to see more content focused on friendships and platonic relationships. Man, what’s happened to sex in cinema?
To be fair, sex in mainstream cinema has never truly gone mainstream. There have been anomalies, like the occasional hit porn film in the 1970s or the erotic thrillers of the late ’80s and early ’90s (most starring Michael Douglas), but sex in cinema has rarely been embraced or appreciated by the masses as anything more than smut.
Which is a shame when you consider how integral sex is to the dynamics of human relationships. A lot of good drama can come from depicting sex, and the aftermath of sex. It’s really the only way to tell a story like In the Realm of the Senses. As transgressive as it may be, this is a true story, and if writer/director Nagisa Ōshima hadn’t included those scenes, the film would lose all of its impact.
I was nervous going into this one. Not because of the promise of “unsimulated sex”, I’ve seen my share of pornography, that didn’t worry me. What worried me was reading about the actual incident this film was based on. If you’re averse to graphic stories, I’m giving you fair warning right here.
Basically, there was this geisha-turned-waitress named Sada Abe in 1930s Tokyo who worked at a restaurant owned by a married womanizer named Kichizō Ishida. The two started a breathtaking sadomasochistic love affair, so breathtaking that, during a particularly rough session, Abe accidentally choked Ishida to death with her sash. She laid with the body for several hours before severing Ishida’s genitals and keeping them under her kimono until her arrest three days later.
Abe, shockingly, was only sentenced to six years in prison (she served five) and became a tabloid fixture for years after her act of “mad love,” giving numerous interviews and inspiring books about the incident, until she faded from public consciousness in the early ’70s. At least until Nagisa Ōshima’s 1976 adaptation.
Well-known in the Japanese New Wave movement of the 1960s, Ōshima was a noted provocateur. He made films about postwar rebellion (Cruel Story of Youth), child abuse (Boy), and the death penalty (Death by Hanging), and often explored psychologically intense stories told with unconventional narrative structures and striking, minimalist visuals. So in many ways, In the Realm of the Senses is the perfect encapsulation of his work.
And you’re dropped right into it, Sada Abe (Eiko Matsuda) is having graphic sex less than ten minutes into the film. Almost immediately, we’re introduced to her and her infatuation with her controlling employer, Kichizō Ishida (Tatsuya Fuji). Like, immediately. I’m talking full frontal at the 12-minute mark, fellatio at 17, and full penetration while Sada plays a shamisen not long after that.
“So, it’s just porn then?” Kind of, but it does serve a narrative purpose. We need to see the physical intensity of Sada and Kichizō’s relationship to understand her obsession. What begins as typical sex builds to toys, tools, choking, even Kichizō eating food that has been… “cooked in Sada’s own juices.” I’ll let you piece together what that means.
We need to see Sada’s obsession with Kichizō, how she gets so jealous that she fantasizes about attacking his wife with a razor. This is a thriller that unveils itself almost exclusively through sex scenes, and it works. I love that this film is so hyper-focused on using sex to tell its story because that’s what the actual story was about.
The story of Sada Abe is the story of how sex can consume us. Eiko Matsuda’s vulnerable performance is everything from sympathetic to scary. This, combined with Ōshima’s minimalist visuals, gives the film the feeling of an intimate play, almost as if you’re right in the room with them.
Considering the true story, I was afraid In the Realm of the Senses would be too icky to enjoy, but honestly, it’s a fascinating look at how bedroom dynamics can dictate a person’s life. The film doesn’t use sex to be sexy so much as it uses it to highlight Sada’s mental state. It’s bold filmmaking. So bold Ōshima had to defend the film in an obscenity court (he won), though that didn’t stop it from being banned in numerous countries.
People these days, particularly young people, are uninterested in sex in modern film and television. It’s a shame, because sex can be just as artful a way to represent a character and their emotions as a conversation. Sex is a natural form of expression, and we shouldn’t demonize that or feel guilty for watching it. Let’s hope those survey numbers turn around someday, otherwise we’re gonna see the media become more and more afraid to express itself.