IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES (BFI Film Classics), by Joan Mellen. London: British Film Institute, 2004, 88 pp., with photographs. ?8.99 (paper).
Nagisa Oshima¡¯s 1976 film, ¡°In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no Korida),¡± is not only one of his most famous (or infamous) works but also one of his finest. Joan Mellen, in her excellent new monograph, has called it ¡°the most brilliant dystopic vision ever to appear on film.¡± The quarter-century that has since elapsed has done nothing to dim this dazzling confrontation.
Sexual and political liberation are linked, and opposed, to a society destructive of these aims. The liberated lovers may fail (Oshima called his film a ¡°reverse utopia¡°), but even though such freedom cannot be sustained in a politically corrosive social order, they still challenge society¡¯s hegemony.
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