Crimes Of Passion And Crimes Of Murder
EMPIRE OF PASSION (Blu-ray)
StudioCanal
Release date: October 17th 2011
Certificate (UK): 18
Running time: 101 minutes
Year of production: 1978
Country of origin: Japan
Original language: Japanese with English subtitles
Writer and director: Nagisa Oshima
Composer: Tôru Takemitsu
Cast: Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Tatsuya Fuji, Takahiro Tamura
A crime of passion turns to murder in Nagisa Oshima’s follow-up to the hugely controversial In The Realm of the Senses (1976).
Made while the director was still being prosecuted for his earlier film, Empire of Passion sets the stage for breaking even more taboos.
Set in Japan in 1895, a young soldier, Toyoji (Tatsuya Fuji), and an older married woman, Seki (Kazuko Yoshiyuki), begin an illicit affair.
Driven by lust and jealousy on Toyoji’s part, the couple decide to murder Seki’s husband, Gisaburo (Takahiro Tamura).
They ply him with alcohol, once drunk; they then strangle him to death and dispose of his body. Free to now carry on their sexual escapades but still in secret, Seki tells anyone who asks that Gisaburo is away on business. Time goes on and soon three years have passed but rather than living happily ever after with the crime they’ve committed, something else happens.
Gisaburo returns from the dead to wreak his revenge. With his pale face and ghostly eyes he haunts them, taunting them and playing on their guilt, he pushes them to the brink of insanity.
It’s a frightening tale at times and the atmosphere is tense as Oshima unfolds a traditional ghost story mixed with erotic elements. In a film where love and rape seem to go hand in hand it raises questions early on as to how Seki could fall in love with Toyoji.
Was her rape a necessary element in Toyoji breaking down her defences or is it a misogynistic element of Oshima’s storytelling which is also present in In The Realm of the Senses? Either way, he’s a filmmaker who knows how to touch audiences’ nerves and Empire of Passion weaves revulsion, arousal and fear together in a compelling narrative.
As the guilty couple are slowly driven mad, Gisaburo’s ghost can be seen both as literal and figurative. Is he really there or is he a by-product of their guilt?
For fans of traditional Japanese ghost stories and Nagisa Oshima, Empire of Passion is a film that should be seen and then discussed for its many interesting points as well as its influence on contemporary Asian horror.
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