The Internet is for Porn

Film: Ai no Corrida (In the Realm of the Senses)
Format: Streaming video from Hulu+ on laptop.

I knew that Ai no Corrida (In the Realm of the Sense) contained explicit sex before I watched it. That was pretty much all I knew about the film. What I didn’t realize was that this one is pretty much exclusively about sex and that “explicit sex” has multiple possible meanings. If you’re curious, Ai no Corrida covers pretty much every possible meaning of explicit sexuality you can likely think of.

It’s tempting to say that Ai no Corrida is surprising in its frank depiction of sexuality for the time in which it was made, but that would be a lie. The truth is that it’s surprising in its sexuality for any time—it would be no less startling in this respect were it made today. Within the first 20 minutes, we see penetrative sex, flaccid and erect penii (the one and only proper plural for “penis”) and non-simulated fellatio. Charges that this film is little more than pornography certainly make much more sense in this light. Again, I knew that there were non-simulated sex acts in this film. What I did not expect was that they would be completely undisguised. There is no way to mistake what is happening here. There is no pan up to focus on the actor’s face or action obscured by a conveniently placed blanket. No, this is actual sex. Seriously, we get close-ups and “money shots” and everything you’d expect from the Playboy Channel.

While one way of looking at the film is to see it as a loosely-connected series of sex acts, there actually is a story here, if not much of a plot. Sada Abe (Eiko Matsuda) is a former prostitute who now works in a hotel as a maid/servant. The owner of the hotel, Kichizo Ishida (Tatsuya Fuji), known for his daily morning sex with his wife , finds himself attracted to Sada. The two immediately begin a passionate affair consisting of constant and constantly escalating sex acts. Eventually, Kichizo becomes so completely obsessed with Sada that he leaves his wife and life behind in a tireless pursuit to please her. Their sex life together becomes more and more extreme, culminating in his need for erotic asphyxiation and her increasing jealousy regarding Kichizo’s attentions. This leads to fairly obvious consequences, and then a pretty disturbing and non-obvious denouement.

Ai no Corrida is evidently based on a true story from the pre-World War II years of Japan, and much of the film sticks closely to the real story of Sada Abe.

But let’s get to the meat of things here, shall we? This is a story that could have just as easily been told without the explicit sex, and in fact could have likely been told much more completely that way. The sex is here as the reason to watch the film. It goes further and does it more often than a film like Last Tango in Paris that contains almost explicit sex acts for the exact same reason. Certainly there are people who will claim that they’re watching it for other reasons: Oshima’s tremendous mise-en-scene, the taboo-breaking style, but most of them are just trying to justify their watching of what would be to most viewers pornography filmed artistically. No one watched Faces of Death for intelligent commentary on mortality; they watched it to see a guy get eaten by an alligator. Same thing here, just sexier. Folks can (and will) claim any reason they like for watching it, but it’s really all about the fuckin’.

Okay, there is something more here, but one needs to get past the vast amount of sex to get there, and I do mean a vast amount. We have sex, fellatio, more sex, something like an orgy, voyeurism, sex in front of other people, the rape of an older geisha, an invitation for Kichizo to urinate inside Sada during sex, the deflowering of a geisha-in-training by a bird-shaped dildo, prostitution, and a rape fantasy, and that’s within the first 45 minutes. There’s also a rather disturbing moment with a hardboiled egg. Yes, I’m mildly disturbed by what I’ve just typed, since I’m imagining the occasional pubescent male visitor, pants around his ankles visiting this page based on a hit from the preceding sentences in his search terms (Hi, young fella. Pull your pants up!).

But there is something more. As much as this film is about sex in all its various configurations, it’s also about obsession, control, and dominance. It’s about the physical and spiritual possession of another person, and that is a story worth exploring.

The problem is that it’s nearly impossible to get past the sex because it’s so constant. Yes, this is a film that pushed a lot of boundaries. It showed explicit sex acts in a film that wasn’t specifically classified as pornography. But it’s also why this film was so commonly and so frequently banned around the world. There’s a way to tell this story and to make it as definitively sexual without making it sex at every turn. Unfortunately, that’s not what we have here, and it’s a rare person who can see past something that often comes with soft focus and smooth jazz to get at the heart of it. I’m not sure I can, nor am I sure I did. And I think that’s where this one is going to have to stay.

For the record, this probably isn’t one you want to watch sitting on your living room couch with the kids running around.

Why to watch Ai no Corrida: A love story that breaks every possible taboo.
Why not to watch: If you’re not prepared for literal X-rated sex, you’ll be scarred.