Originally I had planned to blog about the Japanese film House (1977) which came out on dvd earlier this week. However, the distributor Paradox has not sent their shipments out, leaving me unable to find the dvd in the city of Toronto. Bogus.
As a result I've decided to focus on another Japanese film, Nagisa Oshima's Empire Of Passion. Considered to be Oshima's only true kwaidan, he doesn't stray too far from familiar territory of eroticism and betrayal.
Winning the prestigious best film award at Cannes in 1978, Empire Passion is combination of both drama and horror. Set in 1895, in an rural village in Japan, the film follows Seki: A loving wife who spends her time cleaning, cooking and tending to her husband, Gisaburo. As Gisaburo spends more time away, his friend Toyiji moves in and after time, convinces Seki to be his lover, secretly. Seki and Toyiji plot Gisaburo's death which they eventually execute. After they viciously strangle Gisaburo, they dump his lifeless body down a well in the forest. Seki explains her husbands absence by telling her neighbors that he has taken a job in Tokyo. Eventually rumours surface and Seki becomes haunted by her dead husband, practically driving her insane...
As her husband's disappearance becomes taken into the hands of an outside police authory in the area ,the hauntings become increasingly more intense and soon it becomes too much for Seki to handle.
Starting as an erotic drama, filled with sex, lies and passion, and changing into a ghost story filled with eerie scenes and haunting images, Empire Of passion is a beautifully made hybrid. A great drama but a much bettter ghost film, Empire of Passion has great cinemotograpy, incredible set locations and brilliant acting.
Watch and enjoy, Empire Of Passion.
No comments:
Post a Comment