L’Empire des sens

Warning: for mature audiences only!

Tokyo, 1936.Sada Abe, a maid, likes to spy on her masters' lovemaking. When her boss Kichizo expresses his attraction, they embark on a never-ending sexual escalation.
Inspired by a romantic and criminal news story (a woman named Sada Abe wandering the streets of Tokyo, radiant with happiness and clutching her lover's severed penis), this film revisits a few days of extreme passion, showing the sexual act without detours. There's no easy voyeurism here, just a rather sincere, even joyful portrayal of erotic obsession and its all-consuming power, illustrating the indissoluble links between pleasure and death.
In an increasingly stifling closed environment, bodies devour each other with pleasure, until the inevitable outcome worthy of their passion.

A scandal-causing film in prudish Japan, and an unvarnished manifesto on mad love and erotic obsession that became an instant cult classic.

Trigon-film / Suisse / info@trigon-film.org