Tonight I watched a fantastic movie called "Empire Of Passion" (1978), by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima. I found it in the library database as usual, in a search for new Criterion titles. Oshima made a film two years prior to this one called "Realm Of The Senses", which was notorious at the time for it's sexual content. I had never seen his work before tonight, but wow - this one was a masterpiece.
The year is 1895, post-feudal Japan, but the people are still living according to a class system. Gisaburo is a rickshaw driver living in a small village near a forest. He works long hours and barely ekes out a living, making just enough to feed his family (a wife and small child), with a little left over to buy some sake. He comes home tired every night. His wife Seki works too, not at a formal job but just doing tasks here and there for the local landowner, a nice lady who is wealthy but fair. Seki is a server at her parties and all the men remark on how good she looks for her age (she is 50 but looks early 30s).
There is a young man hanging around the village, an ex-soldier now unemployed and with nothing to do. His name is Toyoji and he is a bad egg. He observes Seki coming and going from her house to her jobs with the landowner. He also knows that her husband works all day and late into the night. He fixates on Seki and starts bumping into her on purpose, in the street, in the marketplace. Then one day he knocks on her door, knowing her husband is not home. You can guess what happens next.
The young soldier is a rogue, but he is handsome and confident, and he rightly assumes Seki will submit to him, even as he forces himself on her. Today this would be rape, and rightly so, but in the movie it is portrayed, accurately, as being ambiguous, even though Toyoji is a complete bastard and has initiated the action. But Seki has lived a hard life and has been neglected for too long by her loving but worn out husband, so when she does submit to Toyoji, she does so in full, and the sex becomes consensual. He has preyed on her, but she goes right along with it. This is a complex portrayal of a difficult scenario, and it is a courageous move by the director, when it would have been all too easy to make it a black-and-white moral issue. However, because this is the Me Too era, which I support 100%, I make the small disclaimer to ask that you watch the film for yourself so that you will not think I am defending Toyoji's actions, which I am not. It's just that the situation is complex, and thus accurate in my estimation, as it is depicted by director Oshima.
So Toyoji now has a hold over Seki, and he begins to visit her at home more often, and she is elated to see him.
It is at this place in the plot that all the reviews I have read, at IMDB and Amazon, give too many details away. I am gonna try to avoid that by being vague, though it might backfire on me, haha. :)
What happens is that soon, rumors begin to develop around the village about Toyoji and Seki. Her husband Gisaburo the rickshaw driver is no longer living in the house; Seki tells her friends that he has moved to Tokyo to find steady work. The implication is that he knows about her affair and has left her, but she won't admit it. This leads to more gossip among the villagers.
Meanwhile, a supernatural aspect is introduced to the story. Seki's adolescent daughter, who lives away at school, is having strange dreams. She reports the details to her mother, who in turn is troubled by them.
The landowner, the nice wealthy lady I mentioned above, has a son who is known as The Young Master. He is generally placid and tolerant of the poor villagers, all of whom live on his property. But he likes to go for long walks in the woods, and he begins to suspect that something is amiss regarding Toyoji, the rebellious soldier. The gossip of his affair with Seki - the wife of Gisaburo - has been building, and at some point the rumors of the locals will lead to direct questions.
An intrepid policeman in now in the mix, too, He proves to be somewhat relentless.
That is all I will reveal. The main thing with "Empire Of Passion" is it's directorial style. As I mentioned, I have never seen an Oshima film, but if this movie is any indicator, he's got it all.
Everything about it works, especially the pacing and editing. This is one of those movies where the guy cared enough to make sure that every scene led directly into the next, that the story continued to build from one scene to the next, and that there was no excess fat. It is a rare film where every single scene not only fits like a puzzle piece but does so with a maximum of efficiency - so the film never lags - and also maintains dramatic tension, so you are kept on the edge of your seat. It also helps to have incredible actors, which is exactly what we have here.
On top of all of this, if you could imagine a set design that alternates period realism (in the 19th century village) with phantasmagorical horror, all of it shot in painterly color, then you will see why I am saying that Oshima, at least in this movie, shows himself to be a consummate filmmaker.
The color photography is as good as it gets. In scene after scene you find yourself thinking "holy smokes, what a shot"!
The actors playing Toyoji and Seki are first rate, as are all the supporting players. I have long been a fan of Japanese acting, especially in the films of Ozu and Mizoguchi. I will now add Oshima to the list.
'Empire Of Passion" gets the highest rating from me. Two Huge Thumbs and Ten Stars. See it just for the color work alone, but more than that it is a great film altogether. /////
We had good singing in church this morning. Tomorrow I will try for a hike since it is a day off.
See you in the morning. Love during the night. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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