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Empire of Passion

Ai no borei

Japan, France

1978

105 Min
Color
1.66:1
Japanese
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
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DIR Nagisa Ôshima

PROD Anatole Dauman, Shigeru Wakatsuki

SCR Nagisa Ôshima, Itoko Nakamura

DP Yoshio Miyajima

CAST Tatsuya Fuji, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Takahiro Tamura, Takuzo Kawatani, Masami Hasegawa, Akiko Koyama, Taiji Tonoyama

ED Keiichi Uraoka

PROD DES Jusho Toda

MUSIC Tôru Takemitsu

SOUND Tetsuo Yasuda, Alex Pront

Cannes (In Competition): Best Director, London

Synopsis

With an arresting mix of eroticism and horror, Oshima plunges the viewer into a nightmarish tale of guilt and retribution in Empire of Passion (Ai no borei). Set in a Japanese village at the end of the nineteenth century, the film details the emotional and physical downfall of a married woman (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) and her younger lover (Tatsuya Fuji) following their decision to murder her husband and dump his body in a well. Empire of Passion was Oshima’s only true kaidan (Japanese ghost story), and the film, a savage, unrelenting experience, earned him the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Nagisa Ôshima

Nagisa Oshima’s career extends from the initiation of the “Nuberu bagu” (New Wave) movement in Japanese cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to the contemporary use of cinema and television to express paradoxes in modern society. After an early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto, Oshima rose rapidly in the Shochiku company from the status of apprentice in 1954 to that of director. By 1960, he had grown disillusioned with the traditional studio production policies and broke away from Shochiku to form his own independent production company, Sozosha, in 1965. With other Japanese New Wave filmmakers like Masahiro Shinoda, Shohei Imamura and Yoshishige Yoshida, Oshima reacted against the humanistic style and subject matter of directors like Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa, as well as against established left-wing political movements. Oshima has been primarily concerned with depicting the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society. His… read more

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Hikaru

21Feb13

Vastly underrated, but I think this is one of Oshima's best. The naturalistic setting is beautiful, yet there is always a sense of menace, which eventually leads to violence. If "Senses" was about sex as liberation from society, the characters in "Empire" does not even have that escape, since their desires are haunted by a ghost. Despite the dark subject matter, this film is filled with cinematic pleasures.

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Shelley

20Feb13

a breathtaking, dark fantasy with a haunting score. There are scenes in this film that are completely silent, but will leave you with chills. The depiction of the ghost (kaidan) is very well done and creepier than any Western ghost I've ever seen in cinema. The story is perfectly paced, never having a dull moment, and it always has you on the edge of your seats. Perfectly done. I cant wait to see "senses"

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Cosi

19Feb13

Toyoji you dirty rotter you! Oh Toyoji

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Adam Suraf

21Jun11

Made closely following the international pseudo porn hit "In the Realm of the Senses", Oshima depicts sex and violence as coming hand in hand, in a 19th century ghost story impeccably directed and accessible.

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Articles

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W184

The Auteurs Daily: Locarno and Other Fests and Events

By David Hudson on August 14, 2009

  The 62nd Locarno International Film Festival has wrapped tonight with its awards ceremony and the world premiere of Byambasuren Davaa

read article

Ôshima on UK BluRay: EMPIRE OF PASSION (1978) review

By Twitchfilm.com on October 31, 2011
If you’re making a film about bad people doing bad things, you owe it to your audience to give them some reason – no matter how ambiguous or artistic – why they should care what’s happening. Common sense
read on Twitchfilm.com

Lists

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Reviews

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AI NO BOREI (EMPIRE OF PASSION)

By Daniel A. DiCenso on September 3, 2011

By the mid-70s, the pillar native genres of American cinema, such as film noir, had found a new life in Japan. This has been attributed to the movies screened for Japanese POWs during WWII, but the…  read review

Untitled

By McNulty on August 12, 2009

Bought this as a Blind Buy based on DVDBeaver’s review. I don’t know anything about this director but I’ll tell you this every single shot and camera angle is magnificently set up. I couldn’t believe…  read review

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