A former prostitute (Eiko Matsuda), now working as a servant, begins a torrid affair with her married employer (Tatsuya Fuji).

In 1936 Tokyo, Sada Abe is a former prostitute who now works as a maid in a hotel. The hotel’s owner, Kichizo Ishida, initiates an intense affair that consists of sexual experiments and various self-indulgences. Ishida leaves his wife to pursue his affair with Sada. Sada becomes increasingly possessive and jealous of Ishida as Ishida becomes more eager to please her. Their mutual obsession escalates until Ishida finds that Sada is most excited by strangling him during lovemaking, and he is killed in this fashion.

In the Realm of the Senses, by the always provocative Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, remains one of the most controversial films of all time. Based on a true incident, it graphically depicts the all-consuming, transcendent—but ultimately destructive—love of a man and a woman (Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda) living in an era of ever escalating imperialism and governmental control. Less a work of pornography than of politics, In the Realm of the Senses is a brave, taboo-breaking milestone, still censored in its own country.