That was an excellent one.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Made just before, Empire of the Senses, based upon the same 1936 incident and the year before the director would make, Watcher in the Attic. The later film also concerns obsession getting close to madness but that one is a little easier to watch than this. Well enough made, with some beautiful shots and close-ups and good performances, this is pretty gruelling stuff. I found, even the early scenes where there is a lot of laughing and licking of each others fingers slightly uncomfortable and that's before we get onto flavouring their food with each others juices and ultimately, games involving the tying of a pink cloth around the neck. Nicely non linear, with jumps forward and the reveres with newspaper clippings and some historical detail, but it is still claustrophobic, being mainly set in one room, and always unsettling.

Those that have seen the film EMPIRE OF THE SENSES will know what the storyline is to A WOMAN CALLED SADA ABE. Both films (along with several others) are based on the true-crime case that rocked Japan in 1936. Not your typical Nikkatsu sleaze-fest, A WOMAN CALLED SADA ABE seems to be a genuinely accurate retread of the famous case...Sada and her boss begin a heated affair that quickly escalates into obsession. The pair spend their days and nites in "hotel" rooms experimenting with various sexual delights and further engaging their jealous and obsessive natures. It's obvious that Sada is the more whacked-out of the couple, and eventually her need for confirmation and control move her to murder her lover, cut off his ding-ding, and carry it around with her til she's caught by the cops...Again, I didn't find A WOMAN CALLED SADA ABE quite as strong as EMPIRE OF THE SENSES, mainly because EMPIRE (being a Japanese/French co-production) was able to show far more explicit nudity and sex - bordering on pornography which actually worked in that film's favor. I also found the acting and the general atmosphere in EMPIRE to be superior to WOMAN, but WOMAN is still a strong film. The acting is definitely decent, and the storyline, though rife with sex and eventual violence seems to portray the events accurately and not nearly as exploitative as would be expected from a Nikkatsu pink film. Worth a look to both pinku fans, and those interested in the Sada Abe case...8/10

Based upon a true story (which is more common through Nagisa Oshimas "In the Realm of Senses"), this well filmed, well acted Japanese movie is as much a contribution to the infamous "pink film" genre, as it is a fascinating tale of the wild and weird ways that sexual obsession leads to. Kaio, as Abe Sada called herself, and her boss Kishi are drawn into an amorous affair and totally forget about the outside world. They stay in a hotel room and day-in, day-out they spent their time with erotic games, exploring all aspects of physical love and gradually going further and further, until... It's not really sado-masochism of the western type, it looks more like erotic rituals, yet for the unprepared viewer some scenes may be quite harsh. This one's neither moralistic nor stuff to turn on voyeurs. The obsession is physically visible, but no doubt is left that the real obsession takes place in the minds of the protagonists. A forgotten gem, interesting, provocative and highly recommendable.

This is the earlier version of the same true story used for the highly-acclaimed and controversial IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES. This version is bloodier but less sexually explicit. Whereas the death of Ishida was the climax of Oshima's film, here it happens halfway through and then the focus is completely on the grief and longing of Sada Abe for her dead lover. High caliber acting and photography give this shocking story a sheen of artistic quality lacking in most erotic filmmaking.