Empire of Passion
1978 film by Nagisa Ōshima
Empire of Passion (Japanese: 愛の亡霊, Hepburn: Ai no Bōrei) is a 1978 French-Japanese film produced, written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, based on a novel by Itoko Nakamura. The film was a co-production between Oshima Prods. and Argos Films.
Plot
In 1895 a rickshaw runner arrives home in a village in Japan. His wife Seki is sexually assaulted by a young neighbour, Toyoji. They became lovers. He's very jealous of Seki's husband and decides that they should kill him. One night, after the husband has had plenty of shōchū to drink and is in bed, they strangle him and dump his body down a well. To avert any suspicions, Seki pretends her husband has gone off to Tokyo to work. For three years Seki and Toyoji secretly see each other.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Empire of Passion” is 1978 film by Nagisa Ōshima. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Empire, Passion and film, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1978 film by Nagisa Ōshima” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1659440. 14 of 14 selected statements include explicit references; 14 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978 and 1895.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Empire of Passion primary sources, Empire of Passion archive and Empire research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Empire of Passion” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.