In The Realm — Of The Senses(1976)

Released in 1976, Nagisa Ōshima’s In the Realm of the Senses (Japanese title: Ai no Corrida ) remains one of the most controversial and polarizing works in cinema history. It is a fictionalized retelling of the 1936 Sada Abe incident, where a woman strangled her lover in a moment of extreme passion and subsequently severed his genitalia. The Pursuit of "Absolute" Possession

The film explores the "closed world" of lovers Sada (Eiko Matsuda) and Kichizō (Tatsuya Fuji) as they deliberately isolate themselves from society to pursue a steady increase in erotic intensity. Critics often highlight how the narrative shifts from sheer eroticism to a dark, obsessive madness where sex becomes the only reality. Unlike traditional depictions of tragedy, Ōshima focuses on Sada’s sense of "absolute possession" of her lover, which leads her to believe that death is the only logical climax to their pleasure. A Masterpiece of Provocation In the Realm of the Senses(1976)