Nagisa Oshima’s extraordinary tale of sexual obsession remains equally shocking 30 years later. Inspiring censorship (it was banned in Australia on release in 1976), controversy and critical ire—all because it dared to blend hard-core sex with a solid narrative— this explicit study of sex and death was so controversial in Japan that cans of film were smuggled to France to be processed. This is a masterpiece that fuels the exquisite formalism of Japanese cinema with fatalistic erotic power.