woman, master and servant, individual and state. Based on an incident that took place in 1936, in which a hotel maid murdered and castrated her employer after several days of love-making. With Tatsuya Fuji, Eiko Matsuda. In Japanese with English subtitles.
EMPIRE OF PASSION (AI NO BOREI), 1978, Janus Films, 104 min. EMPIRE won Nagisa Oshima the Cannes Best Director prize. In a late 19th-century-village, an ex-soldier romances an older woman who is married to a boozing rickshaw man. In the tradition of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, the lovers' crime of passion is punished by the couple's guilt, then by society. In Japanese with English subtitles. Due to explicit sexual imagery, no one under 18 will be admitted.