Title: 愛のコリーダ (Ai no Koriida) English Title: In the Realm of the Senses Release Date: 1976 (France) Director: Oshima Nagisa Cast: Matsuda Eiko, Fuji Tatsuya This movie was my first introduction to director Nagisa Oshima. As an interesting afterthought, I found parts of In the Realm of the Senses to be similar to the Tanizaki novel Quicksand. What can I say about this movie? Is it pornography? …I would say no. But are parts of it pornographic? …Definitely. Here’s the kicker though – it’s based on a true story. Sada Abe and Kitchizo Ishida were real people. This story, or at least similar events, actually happened during the late 1930s. So a couple of reasons why I want to give Oshima a lot of credit jump to mind. The first is that he was trying to portray an actual event – one that is, without a doubt, a difficult event to discuss or cover in any form of media. The next thing that really struck me about In the Realm of the Senses was the central plot element – the gradual and growing obsession of Sada and Kitchi toward each other. It’s not just that they’re addicted to sex, (which might be a simple and probably accurate way to put it), but there’s something deeper in their smothering affection for each other. Possibly this could be something that we often see reflected in ourselves, the feeling of desire for someone. Unable to escape desire ourselves, we can almost see ourselves, or at least a piece of ourselves, reflected in the main characters. If we look at the movie in this way, we begin to sense that Oshima had more of a humanistic than simply pornographic tone in mind, as he was making the movie. Passivity, aggression, a physical inability to detach from someone – all things that come into play within one’s life. And yet, Oshima shows us what a fine line these can ride on, when the main characters finally decide to cross it. For a while they’re a little out of control, then really out of control, and a process is set in motion which can hardly be stopped. Noriko's Dinner Table Title: 紀子の食卓 (Noriko no Shokutaku) English Title: Noriko's Dinner Table Release Date: 2005 “I took Psychology at school. In class, a bully and his victim reversed roles; and the bully felt the victim’s pain for the first time and wailed. The bully learned his lesson, and never bullied again. So someone has to play the role of victim.” This is the key motivator behind Noriko’s Dinner Table – a father who doesn’t listen to his daughter who wants to leave the house; a father who imagines his daughters happy even when they aren’t. In order for him to feel their pain, he must be put in their shoes (or so at least some of the movies characters think.) A truly amazing concept – that suffering can never really be known unless you witness something from the viewpoint of the person suffering. All of your actions must come back to you in the form of a circle – not a perfect circle, but one which, if drawn with thick enough lines, will look perfect. A lot of the elements that I thought were going to be continued from the first movie, Suicide Club, were, to my surprise, not mentioned at all in this movie. Instead, some of the incidents from the first movie were viewed in a completely different light, using different characters. “And just what is the Suicide Club!”, we want to yell out, along with some of the main characters who are searching for the true meaning of the club. And we’re simply told over and over, that it doesn’t exist. New avenues to its workings and organization however, are opened in Noriko’s Dinner Table. While the first movie seemed to tackle issues of suicide and group thinking, in a somewhat violent way, this movie deals more with concepts of family and the roles that we play for other people. This is turn, draws out on the question that was asked repeatedly in the first movie “How are you related (or connected) to yourself?” Disturbing, thought provoking, unforgettable – all describe Noriko’s Dinner Table well. A watch that will take the mentally unprepared off balance and leaves us all asking the question, “Just how much are we really considering the feelings of those around us, especially our loved ones?”
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AuthorMy name is Alina Tytarenko. I am a movie lover and soap maker. My website is Dobre Mylo (natural cosmetics). ArchivesCategories |