Taboo

Pros: quite gorgeous images
Cons: emotionally very chilly; slowed by useless inter-titles

Oshima Nagisa is legendary for his movies of fatal heterosexual passion, especially "In the Realm of the Senses" and "The Empire of Passion." I wish that I could remember better or see again Oshima's WWII POW camp movie, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" ...

Pros: Excellent choreography on the fight scenes; an interesting human drama
Cons: An ending that doesn't really seem to close out the story

After taking a nearly decade long hiatus from the director's chair, Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, ...

Pros: Lush sensual visuals in a twisted story of sex and obsession.
Cons: Can be hard to follow, only dubbed in French.

Taboo, by esteemed director Oshima Nagisa (Night Fog in Japan, Pleasures of the Flesh, In the Realm of the Senses) is a period drama, set in the age of the Shoguns. This is one of the most misunderstood films, largely because it is a very ...

Pros: Technically polished, especially in terms of the photography and swordfights.
Cons: Cold and distant; an unsatisfying ending.

The "taboo" at the center of Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Oshima's first feature in 14 years is homosexuality--which is frowned upon in the film's strict setting of a 19th Century samurai training facility. Inciting passions of "that...