A Woman Called Sada Abe

Directed by Noboru Tanaka

Omnibus Entertainment

1975

76 Minutes

Japan

Japanese

Crime, Erotic, Drama, Asian, Classics

Asian Studies, Film Studies, Sex & Sexuality

Not Rated

Library Pricing:

DVD $150.00

Blu-ray $150.00

PPR $350.00

DRL $499.00

PPR+DRL $599.00

To submit an order, request a preview screener, or ask a question contact Erin Farrell

erin@filmmovement.com

Inspired by the true-life tale of a broken woman whose hedonistic tryst with a high-class restaurateur resulted in a horrific crime of passion that littered Tokyo headlines in 1936, director Noboru Tanaka’s stark tale of passion has lost none of its power to shock since its release in 1975. Based on the same story as Oshima's In The Realm of the Senses, which was released the following year.

Cast

Junko Miyashita
Eimei Esumi
Genshu Hanayagi

Highest Rating
"Based on the same real-life story that Nagisa Oshima chronicled in In the Realm of the Senses (1976), this film, made in 1975, is more realistic and sympathetic. [T]he brazen performance of Junko Miyashita in the title role... lifts the sad, tawdry tale into borderline tragedy."

Ted Shen, Chicago Reader
Highest Rating
"Many critics reckon that “A Woman Called Sada Abe” is greater than Oshima’s version, which was released one year after this film. It isn’t as explicit and erotic as Oshima’s version but has many beautiful sexual and romantic scenes."

Deepesh Thapa, Taste of Cinema
Highest Rating
"As much as Oshima’s version, this is a real movie about a sexual relationship, not an exercise in titillation or masturbation fantasies. A Woman Called Sada Abe can hold its own in any comparison with Oshima’s version of the story and avoids the self-indulgence of Last Tango in Paris, another more famous movie about a couple held together in one room only by sexual passion ."

Japan On Film
Highest Rating
"Tanaka's version is certainly the more accessible of the two. Aside from being less sexually explicit, it is also smaller scale, more intimate, more cinematically stylised and arguably more erotic."

Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye