Sensual Sensory Overload

When I first saw Nagisa Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no Corrida in Japanese) I thought it was a thrillingly dangerous and erotic film. I was twenty three or so at the time, and I was so impressed at the brutal honesty of the sex portrayed in the movie that I remember feeling quite positive about it. Finally, I thought, someone dares to turn a lens on sexual obsession without pulling out any cheap tricks. I'd never seen anything like it before, and it was beautiful. Also, at the time it really turned me on - I found it erotic and powerful and disturbing at the same time.

When I saw again this month, I was surprised at my much different reaction. While I still felt that the performances and art direction were wihout peer, I was not aroused by any of the powerful sexual images and situations which had affetcted me so strongly seven years ago. My responses this time were focussed primarily on the psychology of obsession, portrayed so vividly in the film, and on the framing and composition of the shots. In other words, I found it engaged my intellect more than my libido.

Two other Japanese films I've seen recently, while technically pornographic in that they depict sex explicitly and frequently, function more as art films with sex than sex films with art. The U.S. porn I've come across tend to place sexual activity at the center of the film; in these movies, it is a vehicle for the story, a metaphor for relationships, and the theatre where the characters engage and explore their relationships. Sex is rarely purely sex. It is a complex social ordering.