Lack of good storyline.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A young man called Toyoji (Tatsuya Fuji) has an affair with a married woman, Seki (Kazuko Yoshiyuki), who is twenty years older than him. Nonetheless he isn't preoccupied with it. Toyoji gets increasingly jealous of her husband, thus one day, when her husband is out, Toyoji shaves her pubic hair, upon having sex with Seki. Thereafter, she is agreeable to assist him in killing her husband, not wanting her consort to see her being shaved. They succeed, notwithstanding, after some time, bizarre phenomena begin to transpire… Empire of Passion (1978) aka Ai no borei has a potential that is sadly wasted. The film of Nagisa Oshima, the director of controversial In the Realm of the Senses (1976) and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), is a mishmash of stronger and weaker ideas. Despite having an interesting concept, which merges erotica as well as kaidan-eiga genre, and a good production design, the flick never manages to be particularly memorable and on the whole it appears very uneven. To start with, the beginning seems very rushed and mauled, scenes rapidly skip from one to another, giving it a rather undisciplined appearance and a textural balance is upended. The character of Seki's husband lacks depth, thus a viewer fails to get acquainted with him and feel pity for him, when he is actually killed. After Seki's consort demise, the pace swiftly slows down and the action drags. At this point, the problematic editing is even more visible, since the content consists of some good scenes as well as totally unnecessary ones and Oshima doesn't fully succeed in focusing on more significant moments, polishing them to perfection. The oneiric parts are neatly handled, nevertheless they don't make a viewer's blood curdle since the tension never becomes overwhelming and there is no real climax of terror. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't send chills down one's spine. The psychological aspect of the two key characters and their carnal obsession remains undeveloped and ineffectively explored. The emotional background which forces Toyoji and Seki to slaughter her husband is rather lame just like the ending which is also executed in an uninspired way which renders the flick even more distant and the story which is intended to be spicy isn't sufficiently sensual. Mise en scène is flawed throughout the whole movie and the paltry writing punctuates it. Notwithstanding, it isn't without its merits. Cinematography by Yoshio Miyajima is tremendous and gives this film a bleak zest and the lighting is pure visual poetry. Sets and costumes look realistic. Peasants' shacks and long grasses swaying in the wind all shrouded in the mist are ravishingly portentous.Two actors playing Toyoji and Seki i.e. Tatsuya Fuji and Kazuko Yoshiyuki give satisfying performances. There is a fine chemistry between them and their emotions are well exposed. It isn't anything exquisite though and there isn't too much to gloat over since the acting still isn't anything remarkable.The soundtrack by Toru Takemitsu is absolutely staggering and it is a true work of art that is probably the best aspect of the entire movie. It adds traditional Japanese atmosphere to the movie and folk flutes, which are frequently exploited, stun in their own, ghoulish way. This decidedly belongs to one of the composer's best creations.It may be stated that it is a bewildering and delightful flick. Notwithstanding, the amazing framing and aesthetic beauty cannot replace the true cinematic value and outshine its multiple flaws. The erratic pace, the ineffective storytelling and writing result in creating an uneven ensemble. It isn't a bad film though – it has a great deal of neatly crafted sequences, some interesting visuals and above all it implicates the phenomenal soundtrack. This simply isn't flabbergasting in terms of high quality. If one is capable of overlooking its numerous shortcomings, it is going to be a decent pastime, however, nothing more than that.

Empire of Passion starts out deceptively - that is, if you're immediately expecting it to be a horror movie. It's like a riff on James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, at first: Seki (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) is a mother of two and a dutiful, hard-working wife to rickshaw driver Gisaburo (Takahiro Tamura). But when he's not around, and she's at home with the baby, the feisty and aimless young man Toyoji (Tatsuya Fuji) comes around to bring some goodies for Seki... and a little extra. They're soon sleeping together, but after he does something to her (let's just say a "shave"), he knows that he'll find out, and immediately proposes that they kill Gisaburo. They drink him up, strangle him, and then toss him down a well. Naturally, this will come back to haunt them - but that it's literally, at least to them (at first super-terrified Seki and then only later on skeptical Toyoji), changes gears into the 'Kaidan', a Japanese ghost story.This is a film where the horror comes not simply out of "oh, ghost, ah", but out of the total dread that builds for the characters. In a way there's the mechanics of a film-noir at work throughout, if only loosely translated by way of a 19th century Japanese village as opposed to an American city or small town (i.e. the snooping cop, the "evidence" found possibly by another, word getting around, suspicions aroused, etc). It's compelling because Seiko actually was against the plan from the start, manipulated by the lustful but ill-prepared Toyoji, and her reactions to Gisaburo's re-appearances are staggering to her. Take the one that comes closest to poetry: Gisaburo's ghost, pale-blue face and mostly silent, chilling stare, motions for Seiko to get on the rickshaw. She does, reluctantly, and he pushes her around on a road she doesn't know, in the wee hours before dawn, surrounded by smoke. Most Japanese ghost stories wish to heavens they could get this harrowingly atmospheric.While it starts to veer into hysterics towards the end, there's so much here that director Oshima gets right in making this a distinctive work. After hitting it huge in the international cinema world with In the Realm of the Senses (which, ironically, got banned in his own country), he made something that, he claimed, was even *more* daring that 'Senses'. Maybe he was right; Empire of Passion has less graphic sexual content by far than its predecessor (also starring Tatsuya Fuji, a magnificently physical actor with an immense lot of range), but its daring lies in crafting a world of dread. You can believe in ghosts in this story, but you also have to believe how far down to their own personal hells these two would-be lovebirds will go. The snooping detective or the gossiping townspeople are the least of their worries: the fate of their very souls is at stake.And Oshima takes what in other hands could be merely juicy pulp (sadly, it wouldn't surprise me if an American remake was already in the works) and crafts shot after gorgeous shot, with repetition working its way into the mis-en-scene (i.e. the shots of Seiko and Toyoji walking on that road, the camera at a dutch angle, the world tilted and surrounding them in a grim blue hue) as well as some affecting movements that will stay with me long after I finish typing this (i.e. Toyoji throwing the leaves by one hand into the well in slow motion, or how Seiko's nude body is revealed after she becomes blind). It's daring lies in connecting on a level of the spirit- not to be confused with the spiritual, though there may be something with that as well- about life and death's connections to one another, inextricably. It's a classic waiting to be discovered.

In 1895, in a small village in Japan, the wife of the litter carrier Gisaburo (Takahiro Tamura), Seki (Kazuko Yoshiyuki), has an affair with a man twenty-six years younger, Toyiji (Tatsuya Fuji). Toyiji becomes jealous of Gisaburo and plots with Seki to kill him. They strangle Gisaburo and dump his body inside a well in the woods, and Seki tells the locals that Gisaburo moved to Tokyo to work. Three years later, the locals gossip about the fate of Gisaburo, and Seki is haunted by his ghost. The situation becomes unbearable to Seki and Toyiji when a police authority comes to the village to investigate the disappearance of Gisaburo."Ai no Borei" is a surreal and supernatural love story. The remorse and the guilty complex of Seki make her see the ghost of her murdered husband, spoiling the perfect plot of her lover. The cinematography is jeopardized by the quality of the VHS released in Brazil, but there are very beautiful scenes, inclusive "Ringu" and the American remake "The Ring" use the view of the well from inside in the same angle. The performances and direction are excellent making "Ai no Borei" a great movie. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "O Império da Paixão" ("The Empire of Passion")

In the Realm of the Senses is a beautifully filmed, well-written, and splendidly acted film. It tells the haunting story of a woman who kills her husband after falling in love with another man. The ghost of her husband continues to haunt her lond after his murder. This film is really good, anyone interested should definitely check it out.