<title>Ai no Korrida</title>
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font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, mono; font-size: 11px;"><FONT color="#ff2100"><I>Ai no
Korrida:</I><BR>
the Cutting Edge of<BR>
Feminine Eroticism</TD>
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target=_top><FONT color="#ff2100" size=+1>F<FONT
color="#ff2100" size=-1>ABIEN<FONT color=#ff1200
size=+1> T<FONT color="#ff2100" size=-1>RÉMEAU</A>
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<I>Ai no korrida</I> is the Japanese title of the movie, <I>In the Realm
of the Senses</I>, by Oshima Nagisa. Even though Oshima preferred the
French title <I>L'Empire des sens</I>, for its closeness to the title of
Roland Barthes' book <I>L'Empire des signes</I>, we think that the
Japanese title deserves more attention. <I>Ai no korrida</I>, whose
translation is <I>Corrida of love</I>, contains the idea of kill; the kill
of what? the kill of the hero, of course; yet why not the kill of
love?<BR>
<IMG hspace=10 src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif" border=0><I>In
the Realm of the Senses</I> became famous for its last scene — a scene of
castration —, but I regard the turning point as the killing of the hero,
Kichiso, leading the heroine to what Lacan calls the feminine
<I>jouissance</I>.<BR>
<IMG hspace=10 src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif"
border=0>This article intends to show how Lacan's teaching can elucidate
the movie's framework and conversely, perhaps above all, but also, how the
movie illustrates some of Lacan's ideas about <I>jouissance</I>,
especially those developed in the Seminar XX — <I>Encore</I> (1972-73). So
far no other films have achieved this lacanian uniqueness.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
At the movie's end, Kichi, after all their feats, lies completely
exhausted; Sada, with her same appetite, is on the watch.<BR>
<IMG
hspace=10 src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif" border=0>The strangulation
that occurred during their sexual intercourses has brought them close to
death. Then, Kichi gives Sada this specific order regarding strangulation:
"If you start, don't stop in the middle, it hurts too much afterwards."
One can recognize the expression of the super-ego, "<I>jouis</I>!"
addressed to Sada, where exactly it is only implied. There are three times
in Kichi's imperative: the beginning, the middle, and "afterwards," which
is in fact the final cause <I>a contrario</I> (the reason why she should
not stop). Death and <I>jouissance</I> are indisputably present in this
sentence. At the same time, their temporality, the very end of the act, is
missing. In the following scene of Kichi's death, Sada is initiated to a
new kind of <I>jouissance</I>. This is the only instance when Sada obtains
<I>jouissance</I> detached from any sexual act; whereas previously, Sada
strangulates Kichi during their love making, she now shows a complete
disinterest in his penis. Initially the next scene appears enigmatic: Sada
lies naked amid the benches of an open-air theater; a little girl running
after an old man, playing hide-and-seek keeps asking: "Are you ready?" The
old man answers: "Not yet," until he suddenly disappears. This scene may
be understood as Sada's fantasy — the death, the killing of her
father.<BR>
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<IMG hspace=10 src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif"
border=0>These scenes correlate with what Lacan taught about fantasy as
the last defense against <I>jouissance</I>. Sada's fundamental fantasy
arises at the same time it is passed over (one may refer to the
<I>Aufhebung</I> here), leading her to a <I>jouissance</I> one should no
longer call sexual, but rather "a glance at feminine <I>jouissance</I>."
In the following scene Sada castrates Kichi's corpse. As Lacan points out,
this scene conveys a certain strangeness and questions the psychoanalytic
concept of castration: "Here we see clearly that castration is not a
fantasy. Castration cannot be placed so easily in the function that it has
in psychoanalysis, since it may be fantasized."<A
href="#footnote"><FONT color="#ff2100"
size=-2><SUP>1</SUP></FONT></A><A name=1><BR>
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hspace=10 src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif" border=0>She cuts his penis
first, then his testicles. No question, her knife follows the anatomic
section; she cuts the anatomic male organ. What value does it acquire
then, far away from its sexual use? The emasculated corpse of Kichi, in
its connection with the Other, the father of the fantasy, represents the
barred Other (<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif">) and the useless
genital organ she now possesses is the signifier of this <IMG
src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif">: S(<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif"
border=0>). Sada reaches the other <I>jouissance</I>, the feminine
<I>jouissance</I>, specified by its relation with S(<IMG
src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif" border=0>).
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<br>
<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif" hspace=10 border=0>The difference between the two
<I>jouissances</I> is also evoked by the terminology of the script, when a
voice-over states that Sada, holding his sex in her hand, roamed the
streets of Tokyo for four days with a resplendent face: it is no longer
question of happiness (<I>ureshii</I>) but of resplendence
(<I>hareyakana</I>): which in Japanese first refers to a clear, cloudless
sky. In that way, Sada approaches certain mystics .<BR>
In connection to what has
gone before, I would like to make a few comments on Lacan's
schema:<A href="#footnote"><FONT
color="#ff2100" size=-2><SUP>2</SUP></FONT></A>
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The left side concerns the male inscription, and the right, the female
inscription. For Kichi, sexual <I>jouissance</I> is associated with the
fantasy that he responds to Sada's <I>demande</I> by giving himself over
to Sada's sexual games.
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font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, mono; font-size: 11px;"><A name=2><IMG hspace=10
src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif" border=0>His fantasy supports his
<I>jouissance</I>, at the same time his <I>jouissance</I> builds up his
fantasy. What Kichi grasps of the Other, incorporated in Sada, is his
<I>objet a</I>: "It (<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/ais.gif" align=bottom
border=0> in the masculine position) can never reach its sexual partner,
which is the Other, except by way of mediation, as the cause of its
desire."<A href="#footnote"><FONT
color="#ff2100" size=-2><SUP>3</SUP></FONT></A><A name=3>
On the other hand, Sada shows this duality: she has a rapport to the
sexual <I>jouissance</I>, <IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/la.gif" align=bottom
border=0> —> <IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/f.gif" align=bottom border=0>,
and, as she is inscribed on the side of the "<I>pas-toute</I>," she has
rapport to the feminine <I>jouissance</I>, demonstrated by the end of the
movie, <IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/la.gif" align=bottom border=0> —>
S(<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif" align=bottom border=0>). From this,
three points can be raised: 1 — The position of fantasy is very specific
in the case of Sada: it plays the role of a defense against feminine
<I>jouissance</I>. It would be the bar separating the phallic
<I>jouissance</I> (for women) from the feminine <I>jouissance</I>:</TD>
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2 — The place of castration can be revised. For men, castration is a
prerequisite: man can approach woman, because he is castrated; "...short
of castration, that is, short of something which says <I>no</I> to the
phallic function, man has no chance of enjoying the body of the woman, in
other words, of making love."<A
href="#footnote"><FONT color="#ff2100"
size=-2><SUP>4</SUP></FONT></A><A name=4> Castration is,
for man, the ratio of the paternal function, <IMG
src="Ai_no_Korrida/exfx.gif" border=0>, with the phallic function,
<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/axfx.gif" border=0>. For Sada, castration
comes last, as part of the real that constitutes S (A); and, in that
sense, we can consider castration as part of the real that constitutes
S(<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif" border=0>), and in that sense one
can say that castration is her "anti-fantasy." Castration allows Sada to
rid herself of her fundamental fantasy, <IMG
src="Ai_no_Korrida/ais.gif" border=0> —> a. Thus she reaches the
feminine <I>jouissance</I>, <IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/la.gif" border=0>
—> S(<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif" border=0>) In that way,
castration can be conceived of as the passing from the "<I>semblant
d'être</I>" to S(<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif" border=0>):</TD>
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<IMG hspace=10 src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif" border=0>3 — why
does S(<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif" border=0>) lie below the
female inscription in Lacan's schema? Should it not be exterior to the
male and female inscriptions? One can say that it is the logical
consequence of three lacanian propositions:<BR>
<IMG hspace=10
src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif" border=0>a — woman is basically the
Other in the sexual act<BR>
<IMG hspace=10
src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif" border=0>b — the Other is the treasure
of signifiers<BR>
<IMG hspace=10 src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif"
border=0>c — there is no Other of the Other.<BR>
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font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, mono;
font-size: 11px;"><IMG hspace=10
src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif" border=0>The S(<IMG
src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif" border=0>) occupies a specific position in
woman: a position of "extimity."<A
href="#footnote"><FONT color="#ff2100"
size=-2><SUP>5</SUP></FONT></A><A name=5> One encounters
a further difficulty: woman considered as a subject cannot be called the
Other, A, nor can she not be a divided subject, <IMG
src="Ai_no_Korrida/ais.gif" border=0>. But with respect to
<I>jouissance</I>, Lacan seems to say that one cannot disregard conceiving
of woman as A, nor simply conceive of her as <IMG
src="Ai_no_Korrida/ais.gif" border=0>. For this reason, Lacan writes:
"<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/la.gif" border=0>," which is neither A, nor
<IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/ais.gif" border=0>. From this, one can
understand that the question of the relation between woman and A leads
Lacan towards the concept of God; and, the question of the relation
between woman and <IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/ais.gif" border=0> leads
Lacan towards the question of the unconscious in women. Moreover, the fact
that <IMG src="Ai_no_Korrida/la.gif" border=0> —> S(<IMG
src="Ai_no_Korrida/aia.gif" border=0>) stays within the female
inscription indicates that feminine <I>jouissance</I> is "<I>jouissance de
l'un</I>."<BR>
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font-size: 11px;"><IMG hspace=10 src="Ai_no_Korrida/SINGLEP.gif"
border=0>I could finish this article by congratulating the actress, Eiko
Matsuda, for her exceptional performance, and Oshima Nagisa for his
masterpiece. But discrediting the male role, as I have earlier, for
example by simply labelling Kichi as obsessional, may be a pitfall of the
film. His apparent passivity should not mask that it is Kichi who
introduces strangling into their love games, and the one who asks Sada to
kill him. One could say without a Kichi, no Sada (also, without a Sada, no
Kichi). Kichi loses everything: his strength, his life, and even beyond
death, his genitals. In fact, as the action progresses, one comes to
understand his position as the same as Sada's: their refusal of the
"<I>semblant</I>" associated with the sexual <I>jouissance</I>. He
gradually erects it to an ethical position. He becomes conscious that
there is no escape from sexual <I>jouissance</I> within the realm of love,
conscious that he will not become what she is about to reach, or in other
words, he becomes conscious of the inexistence of sexual relation.
Therefore, he is the order addressed to Sada; "Jouis!," as the only chance
to escape their <I>jouissance</I>. </TD>
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font-size: 11px;">Notes<BR>
<FONT size=-1><A name=footnote>
1. Jacques
Lacan, <I>Le Sinthome, Ornicar?</I> n. #9, p. 38; "C'est là qu'on voit
bien que la castration, ce n'est pas le fantasme. Elle n'est pas facile a
situer dans la fonction qui est la sienne dans l'analyse, puisqu'elle peut
être fantasmatisée." <A href="#1"><FONT
color="#ff2100">back up</FONT></A><BR>
2. In <I>Feminine Sexuality — Jacques
Lacan and the École Freudienne</I>, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1982,
p.149. <A href="#2"><FONT color="#ff2100">back
up</FONT></A><BR>
3. ibid, p.151, <I>Encore</I>, p. 75. <A href="#3"><FONT color="#ff2100">back up</FONT></A><BR>
4. ibid, p. 143, <I>Encore</I>, p.67. <A
href="#4"><FONT color="#ff2100">back
up</FONT></A><BR>
5. We refer the reader to Jacques-Alain Miller's seminar
"L'Extimité," 1985-86, unpublished. <A
href="#4"><FONT color="#ff2100">back
up</FONT></A> </TD>
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