Review of A Woman Called Sada Abe (1975) by Richard L — 12 Apr 2009

Interesting, well acted, but ... .

It's unfortunate; this is a film which doesn't quite come off ... for a range of reasons. The film is based on a sensational crime in Kyoto, where, in 1936 a woman called Abe Sada murdered her lover, strangling him in bed then cutting off his member. It was a killing which scandalised Japan, and triggered much gratuitous fascination - here, for once, was a woman who was not coyly passive, here was a woman who was sexually predatory. She attracted much sympathy, was sentenced to six years imprisonment, but was pardoned by the Emperor in 1940. It's a tale which has continued to fascinate Japan - there have been at least four films based on the events.

The backstory to the murder is that Abe Sada was the daughter of an artisan family; as a fifteen year old she was disowned by them after being raped - she was thrown out for dishonouring the family. Thereafter, she drifted for years, living on her wits, living promiscuously. Finally she went to work for the man with whom she would have a frenetic sexual liaison ... the man she would kill. Now, that's quite a story, and there's plenty for a film maker to work with.

Noboru Tanaka's film is tamely erotic - it complied with Japan's censorship policies. However, a year after it was made, Nagisa Oshima's notorious and explicit version of the story, "In the Realm of the Senses" ("Ai No Koriida"), relegated it to the role of also ran. Tanaka therefore lost out in the sensation stakes, although, in some respects, his film is a more intimate account.

Junko Miyashita is outstanding in the role of Abe Sada, but the narrative is just a little too fragmented to make this a wholly engaging film. Tanaka concentrates on the few days of sexual obsession which gripped the lovers and culminated in death. Although we get insights into her past, we never get explicit characterisation or explanation. Miyashita gives Japan its first sexually active, sexually predatory woman, but while she attacks the role with passion and verve, the script never really does: she could and should have had so much more to work with. Well filmed, interesting, it sizzles, but never quite leaves the launchpad.