Empire Of Passion

Retired soldier has affair with older and married woman and suggests they kill her husband, which they do and dump his body in unused well. Their affair is kept secret but eventually rumour and gossip bring in police to investigate.

Some compared this film with Ai No Corrida. I watched them both and found them both gripping, but there is no comparison in the stories, while the former is about a prostitute who wants to possess her man by all the means she can, the latter is a guilt ridden affair which at the end catches up with the couple without able to cope with the consequences. Empire of passion is a very good film while Ai No Corrida is more pornographic with no element of surprise.

If you've watched Oshima's Ai No Korida (In the Realm of the Senses) then you may have high expectations for this movie, for while controversial it is a very good movie.

So why do I score this as below average ? Well while there's a story with some super natural and thriller aspects, it never really gets going, nor is there much there. The plot plodders along, while the story fails to decide what it is. What we do know is it never gets the suspense of a thriller, the super natural aspect is not meant to scare.

I think the problem is that Oshima has found yet another real story with a controversial back ground, but then has struggled to bring much out of it. This is only really one to watch if you really want to see what his other works are like.

Keeping in mind this is based on a true story (prob oral history), it's quite a good film to watch... If you already are used to wathing Japanese films from the 1970s.

It's slow and rather odd. Only rent this if you really like this kind of bizarre old Japanese story.

If you want a warmup film to get you into old Japanese film I'd suggest wathcing 'Realm of the Senses' a 1976 Film also by Nagisa Oshima and also based on a true love (sexual) affair in pre-war Japan. Give it a watch.

This title (Empire of Passion) really doesn't live up to its title. Later to the end you get a more genuine sense of passion between this rather foolish pair. However in the early part of the film (Before the dispatching of the hardworking husband) there's little true passion that would justify their following actions. The whole run up to the husbands dispatch is just a bit silly.

They where, however, just a couple of peasants and their ignorance can be forgiven but their actions on the otherhand... well... fate always get's his way.

Enjoy the film

Not as challenging as In the Realm of The Senses but given when it was made goes much further than any American movie would have dared back then. Some great photography in parts and deals credibly with the strange and obessive passions that lead to destruction.