The 9 Most Notorious Moments From the Controversial, Incredibly NSFW ‘In the Realm of the Senses’

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: Before you get too far into this, just know what you’re about to read and see is all very NSFW (Not Safe For Work). In a very artful way, of course.

In the Realm of the Senses is a 1976 French-Japanese erotic art film from director Nagisa Oshima, and if the title sounds familiar to you, that’s because you’ve probably heard it mentioned whenever such-and-such film gets banned in a certain country for sexually explicit content. Every time there’s a Blue Is the Warmest Color or Nymphomanic or some arty director decides he wants to break sexual taboos, In the Realm of the Senses gets trotted out into the public square. The film remains one of the most notorious banned movies, not only because its sexual content — including non-simulated sex scenes — is so explicit but because its artfulness has been so widely accepted. It’s been enshrined in the Criterion Collection and is currently available to stream on the FilmStruck streaming platform.

On the Criterion special edition, the commentary track by film critic Tony Rayns (which is available via FilmStruck as well) is incredibly illuminating when it comes to situating In the Realm of the Senses in its proper historical and artistic context. The film is set in 1936 Japan, a period of imperialism and escalating government control; this is Japan ramping up towards World War II. The plot centers on Sada Abe (Eko Matsuda), a hotel maid and former prostitute whose intense and experimental sexual affair with the powerful Kichizo Ishida (Tatsuya Fuji). Their affair plays against the backdrop of what Rayns describes as Japan’s “erotic tradition” of pleasure houses, which is a fascinating concept to consider from our vantage point in America, where if we have anything close to an “erotic tradition,” it didn’t even begin until the time period when In the Realm of the Senses was being made. (Films like Boogie Nights and shows like HBO’s The Deuce come the closest to tracking any American “erotic tradition.”)

The film notoriously features unsimulated sex, including incredibly close-up shots of genitals, penetration, and oral sex (to completion!). Some of the most scandalous moments in the film, at least for Japanese sensibilities, include a character licking up menstrual blood. The story is based on true events, up to and including the climactic severed penis, so there’s historical cover for what otherwise might simply seem like excess. But moreover everything else, this is decidedly an Art Film, with artistic choices. Rayns makes sure to note that Oshima places intense and almost focus on the women’s sexual pleasure. It is their experience that’s being centered here.

Japan censored the film upon its opening, and in fact would not have allowed the film to have been made at all were it not for the French co-production loophole. One interesting anecdote that is related on the Criterion commentary is that the film was accepted into the 1976 New York Film Festival, only to have to be pulled because it was detained at west coast Customs.

In the Realm of the Senses remains one of the great erotic art films, and it retains 100% of its ability to shock and scandalize audiences today, every bit as it did in 1976.

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Watch In the Realm of the Senses on FilmStruck