A Woman Called Sada Abe (1975)

A woman cuts off a man's penis. Need I say more? This is the only reason I took the DVD home. You can't go wrong with a plot like that. As soon as I read the blurb, I knew I had to race home like the Roadrunner and watch it. After all, it was 'one of the best 10 Japanese films in 1975'. (Quick, name the other 9!) Unfortunately, the actual willy decapitation is shown off camera, and the only glimpse we get of the flaccid organ is when it's wrapped in newspaper. Tch, how disappointing. Never mind.In case you hadn't realised, the girl behind the John Thomas hacking off is CRAZY. She almost strangles her lovers to death during sex, cuts herself with a knife so they can draw pretty pictures with her blood and dips the food she serves them in an.. intimate area before feeding them. Is this some sort of Japanese cultural behaviour that I'm not aware of? They certainly didn't teach me these things during class. Damn, I've lead a sheltered life. Compared to this chick, Glenn Close in a perfect model of sanity.Who is the film for? Ghouls, like me, hoping for a bit of slice 'n' dice in the bedroom? Artistes, who could analyse the heroine's motives to death and feel intellectually superior to anyone who doesn't 'get it'? Or perverts, who will enjoy the MANY sex scenes by fast forwarding past all that nasty, ponderous dialogue? Maybe all of them. But the movie is too dull to recommend, and the cop-out at the climax (tee-hee) just leaves a bad taste in the mouth (another funny!!) Now I think I better go and wash mine out.. 3/10

Made just before, Empire of the Senses, based upon the same 1936 incident and the year before the director would make, Watcher in the Attic. The later film also concerns obsession getting close to madness but that one is a little easier to watch than this. Well enough made, with some beautiful shots and close-ups and good performances, this is pretty gruelling stuff. I found, even the early scenes where there is a lot of laughing and licking of each others fingers slightly uncomfortable and that's before we get onto flavouring their food with each others juices and ultimately, games involving the tying of a pink cloth around the neck. Nicely non linear, with jumps forward and the reveres with newspaper clippings and some historical detail, but it is still claustrophobic, being mainly set in one room, and always unsettling.

Based upon a true story (which is more common through Nagisa Oshimas "In the Realm of Senses"), this well filmed, well acted Japanese movie is as much a contribution to the infamous "pink film" genre, as it is a fascinating tale of the wild and weird ways that sexual obsession leads to. Kaio, as Abe Sada called herself, and her boss Kishi are drawn into an amorous affair and totally forget about the outside world. They stay in a hotel room and day-in, day-out they spent their time with erotic games, exploring all aspects of physical love and gradually going further and further, until... It's not really sado-masochism of the western type, it looks more like erotic rituals, yet for the unprepared viewer some scenes may be quite harsh. This one's neither moralistic nor stuff to turn on voyeurs. The obsession is physically visible, but no doubt is left that the real obsession takes place in the minds of the protagonists. A forgotten gem, interesting, provocative and highly recommendable.

This is the earlier version of the same true story used for the highly-acclaimed and controversial IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES. This version is bloodier but less sexually explicit. Whereas the death of Ishida was the climax of Oshima's film, here it happens halfway through and then the focus is completely on the grief and longing of Sada Abe for her dead lover. High caliber acting and photography give this shocking story a sheen of artistic quality lacking in most erotic filmmaking.