In the Realm of Desire and Reality
When Nagisa Ōshima released In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no Corrida) in 1976, the world was not ready for it. A Japanese–French co-production, it was called “too real” for its graphic sexual content, yet it was also undeniably one of the most emotionally raw and culturally layered films of its time. More than just a tale of passion, it became a mirror reflecting the turbulence of Japan’s suppressed desires and the personal journeys of its lead actors, Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda.
A Story Too Intense to Ignore
The film is based on the true story of Sada Abe, a former geisha whose obsessive love affair with her employer, Kichizo Ishida, led to one of Japan’s most infamous crimes in 1936. Ōshima retells it with a mix of eroticism and psychological depth.
Sada (Eiko Matsuda), working at a Tokyo inn, becomes entangled with her boss Ishida (Tatsuya Fuji). Their relationship quickly crosses boundaries of social respectability and dives into a whirlpool of desire where nothing else matters—not family, not work, not even morality. Their passion grows so consuming that they isolate themselves, treating each other’s bodies as the only world they need.
As days turn into weeks, what begins as liberation from traditional roles soon becomes suffocating. Possessiveness creeps in, and the ecstasy of love transforms into the terror of losing it. The climax—where Sada strangles Ishida during intercourse and later carries his severed genitals as a token of their eternal bond—shocked global audiences. Yet beneath the sensational surface lay a haunting question: what happens when love demands everything?
Eiko Matsuda: A Life That Reflected Sada’s Boldness
For Eiko Matsuda, playing Sada Abe was not just a role but a personal rebellion. She was not an established actress; in fact, she was a young woman navigating the restrictive Japanese entertainment world, where women were often sidelined to safe, ornamental parts.
Matsuda’s decision to take on Ōshima’s controversial project came at a great personal cost. After the film’s release, she faced social stigma in Japan. Mainstream producers hesitated to cast her again, fearing backlash. In interviews, Matsuda admitted that she understood Sada’s reckless defiance—her willingness to risk reputation and comfort for the sake of passion. Off screen, Matsuda too was challenging a society that demanded silence and compliance from women.
The weight of Sada’s character stayed with her. Just as Sada was consumed by Ishida, Matsuda was consumed by the role itself. She struggled with finding mainstream opportunities afterward, proving how art and real life often entwine in painful ways. But her portrayal gave her a place in cinema history: raw, fearless, and unforgettable.
Tatsuya Fuji: The Actor Who Gambled Everything
Tatsuya Fuji, by contrast, was already a familiar face in Japanese cinema and television. Known for his rugged charm, he had worked in studio-backed films that kept him in the safe zone of popularity. Taking on Ishida in In the Realm of the Senses was a professional risk that could have destroyed his career.
And yet, Fuji dove into the role with intensity. He was prepared for the censorship storm that followed, but not for the way Ishida would mirror parts of his own life. At the time, Fuji himself was at a crossroads in his career, wanting to break away from typecast roles and explore something daring. Like Ishida, who abandoned social expectations to surrender to passion, Fuji chose to abandon the safety net of conventional stardom.
Interestingly, while Matsuda’s career suffered, Fuji managed to rebuild his standing later, partly because Japanese society judged men differently. His willingness to push boundaries, however, gave him a reputation as a serious actor unafraid of controversy. Ishida’s blend of tenderness and selfishness in the film carried echoes of Fuji’s own restless artistic journey.
The Cultural Storm
The movie’s release triggered uproar across nations. In Japan, obscenity laws forced Ōshima to process the negatives in France. In the United States and Europe, critics debated whether it was art or pornography. But in India, where the film circulated only in whispers and rare festival screenings, it gained a cult-like reputation.
For Indian cinephiles of the late ’70s and ’80s, In the Realm of the Senses was more than erotic shock—it was a meditation on love that destroys as much as it liberates. Many saw parallels with Indian traditions of forbidden passion, from classical literature like Shakuntala to modern tales of doomed romance. Just as Sada and Ishida defied society, Indian audiences—living in a culture where love marriages were still taboo—found the story strangely familiar, though expressed in a language more explicit than they were used to.
Behind the Camera: Ōshima’s Bold Vision
Nagisa Ōshima, the director, was a provocateur by nature. He believed that cinema should disturb, not comfort. To him, sexuality was political—an act of resistance against authoritarian control. He once said that the real obscenity was not sex, but war and state violence.
On set, Ōshima maintained a clinical precision. Despite the raw intimacy on screen, filming was highly choreographed. The actors had to trust each other deeply, and this bond shaped their performances. It is said that Fuji and Matsuda initially struggled with the vulnerability demanded, but Ōshima’s insistence on authenticity pushed them into creating performances that felt frighteningly real.
What the Audience Missed at First
While the sexual explicitness dominated headlines, what many missed was the subtle commentary on power and gender. Sada is not merely Ishida’s lover—she becomes the one in control, dictating the terms of intimacy and, ultimately, of life and death. In a society where women were often voiceless, this reversal of power carried immense symbolic weight.
Eiko Matsuda, who herself fought against a silencing industry, embodied this subversion naturally. And Fuji, willing to surrender his screen masculinity to vulnerability, allowed Ishida to be both lover and victim.
A Film That Still Burns
Almost five decades later, In the Realm of the Senses remains a film people whisper about, study, or avoid altogether. For the lead actors, it was a life-altering experience—Matsuda carried both the glory and the burden of Sada, while Fuji transformed his career through Ishida.
The film’s legacy lies not only in its daring portrayal of intimacy but also in how it connected cinema with lived struggles. It showed how passion, whether in love or in art, can consume everything—reputation, comfort, even life itself.
In India, where stories of obsessive love still echo in films, songs, and folklore, Ōshima’s masterpiece continues to feel strangely familiar. It is less about shock value and more about the eternal question: how far would you go to keep love alive?
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