27° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL

AI NO BOREI

EMPIRE OF PASSION
by Nagisa Oshima
Country: Japan
Year: 1978
Duration: 108'


EMPIRE OF PASSION
The similar production form makes
this film seem a sequel to the preceding
and clamorous empire. But it is actually
a free-standing film that, under certain
aspects, is its opposite: two clandestine
lovers are consumed by guilty feelings
and haunted by the ghost of the
murdered husband. The film takes place
in a social and natural context, a village
at the end of the Nineteenth century,
which heavily influences the story.

Biography

film director

Nagisa Oshima

Nagisa Ōshima (Tamano, Japan, 1931 - Fujisawa, Japan, 2013) is considered one of the maestros of Japanese cinema. An exponent of “nuberu bagu,” his films depict the contradictions of Japanese society since WWII, in which growing materialism is flanked by strict observance of centuries-old rules, generating oxymorons and irresolvable conflicts. His most important films include Cruel Story (1960); The Sun’s Burial (1960); Night and Fog in Japan (1960); The Ceremony (1971); In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a true sensation because of its explicit sexual content; Empire of Passion (1978), which won Best Director at Cannes; and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983), which received a BAFTA for Best Score. His final film was Taboo (1999), presented in competition at Cannes. In 2009, the Torino Film Festival dedicated a complete retrospective to him.

FILMOGRAFIA

Seishun zankoku monogatari (Racconto crudele della giovinezza, 1960), Taiyō no hakaba (Il cimitero del sole, 1960), Nihon no yoru to kiri (Notte e nebbia in Giappone, 1960), Etsuraku (Il godimento, 1965), Muri shinju: Nihon no natsu (Japanese Summer: Double Suicide, 1967), Koshikei (Death by Hanging, 1968), Gishiki (La cerimonia, 1971), Ai no korīda (Ecco l’impero dei sensi, 1976), Ai no bōrei (L’impero della passione, 1978), Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (Furyo, 1983), Max mon amour (Max amore mio, 1986), Gohatto (Tabù - Gohatto, 1999). 

Cast

& Credits

regia, sceneggiatura/
director, screenplay
Nagisa Oshima
soggetto/story
dal racconto/from the short
story San dai de kuro tsuchi
ni naru - nagatsuka takashi
no ohanashi di/
by Itoko Nakamura
fotografia/cinematography
Yoshio Miyajima
montaggio/film editing
Keiichi Uraoka
musica/music
Toru Takemitsu
suono/sound
Tetsuo Yasuda, Alex Pront
interpreti e personaggi/
cast and characters
Tatsuya Fuji (Toyoji Tanaka),
Kazuko Yoshiyuki
(Seki Tsukada),
Takahiro Tamura
(Gisaburo Tsukada),
Takuzo Kawatani
(l’ispettore/Inspector Hotta)
produttore/producer
Anatole Dauman
produzione/production
Argos Film, Oshima
Productions
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