In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

Nagisa Oshima’s sensational film concerns a woman whose obsessive sexual relationship with her husband crosses the line from passion into the territory of life and death. One of the most sexually explicit films ever to play in mainstream theaters, it has an air of palpable doom, suggesting that sex can be a doorway to suicide. Lest this sound like grunge-era noodling over dreams of self-destruction, be assured that Oshima takes a somewhat formal perspective on the conjunction of various