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Empire of Passion

1978 French film by Nagisa Ōshima

Summary

1978 French film by Nagisa Ōshima

Field	Value
name	Empire of Passion
image	Empire of Passion.jpg
caption	Film poster
director	Nagisa Ōshima
producer	Anatole Dauman
Shigeru Wakatsuki
writer	Nagisa Ōshima
Itoko Nakamura
starring	Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Tatsuya Fuji
Takahiro Tamura
Takuzo Kawatani
Akiko Koyama
music	Toru Takemitsu
cinematography	Yoshio Miyajima
editing	Keiichi Uraoka
studio	Oshima Nagisa Production
distributor	Toho Towa
released
runtime	108 minutes
country	France
Japan
language	Japanese
gross	276,040 tickets (France)

Shigeru Wakatsuki Itoko Nakamura Tatsuya Fuji Takahiro Tamura Takuzo Kawatani Akiko Koyama Japan

Empire of Passion is a 1978 French-Japanese film produced, written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, based on a novel by Itoko Nakamura. The film was a co-production between Oshima Prods. and Argos Films.

Plot

In 1895 a rickshaw runner arrives home in a village in Japan. His wife Seki is sexually assaulted by a young neighbour, Toyoji. They became lovers. He's very jealous of Seki's husband and decides that they should kill him. One night, after the husband has had plenty of shōchū to drink and is in bed, they strangle him and dump his body down a well. To avert any suspicions, Seki pretends her husband has gone off to Tokyo to work. For three years Seki and Toyoji secretly see each other. Their relationship has moments of intense passion, but the young man starts to distance himself from Seki. Finally, suspicions in the village become very strong and people begin to gossip. To make matters worse, her husband's ghost begins to haunt her and the law arrives to investigate her husband's disappearance.

Cast

Tatsuya Fuji - Toyoji
Kazuko Yoshiyuki - Seki
Takahiro Tamura - Gisaburo
Takuzo Kawatani - Inspector Hotta
Akyoshi Fujiwara
Masami Hasegawa - Oshin
Kenzo Kawarazaki
Tatsuya Kimura
Eizo Kitamura
Akiko Koyama - Mother of Landowner
Osugi - Dancer
Sumie Sasaki - Odame
Takaki Sugiura
Rinichi Yamamoto
Taiji Tonoyama - Toichiro

Release and honours

Empire of Passion was Japan's submission to the 51st Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. The film was entered into the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, where Ōshima won the award for Best Director. It was released on DVD by Fox Lorber Films in 2000 under the title In the Realm of Passion.

The film "was Oshima's only true kaidan (Japanese ghost story)" and is described as "a savage, unrelenting experience".

References

Galbraith, Stuart (1994). Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. McFarland. p. 381.
"Ai no Borei (1978)".
Galbraith, Stuart (1994). Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. McFarland. p. 381.
"L' Empire de la passion". [[British Film Institute]].
Galbraith, Stuart (1994). Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. McFarland. p. 381.
"List of Japanese films nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film". Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan.
"Festival de Cannes: Empire of Passion". festival-cannes.com.
"Empire of Passion - Trailer".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1978-films 1978-drama-films french-drama-films japanese-drama-films films-directed-by-nagisa-ōshima 1970s-japanese-language-films films-about-adultery films-produced-by-anatole-dauman films-scored-by-toru-takemitsu 1978-japanese-films 1978-french-films

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