The always remarkable
Criterion Collection just released beautifully remastered DVD and
Blu-ray disc versions of
Oshima Nagisa's (
大島 渚 ) controversial masterwork,
"In the Realm of the Senses" (
愛のコリーダ; ,Ai no Korida; L'Empire des sens). This brilliant 1976 film, which some consider the highest of artistic expression and others call "pornography, is still banned from being shown uncensored in Japan. In fact, as
"In the Realm of the Senses" was being filmed, it took a French financing company, and the shipping of cans of undeveloped
celluloid to France for processing, to complete the production.
