Violence at Noon / Empire of Passion May 7, 2009

A chilling crime film and a tale of passion make up this double bill.

A tour de force of editing and suspense, Violence at Noon is based on the true story of a serial killer who terrorized Japan in the 1950s. (99 mins., 35mm.)

Winning Oshima the best director award at Cannes, Empire of Passion is a kind of sequel to In the Realm of the Senses. Here the conflict between sexual passion and social structures plays out between a young soldier and a married older woman in a late 19th-century village. (106 mins., 35mm)

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