The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.
Today’s prompt: What’s the most uncomfortable date movie?
It actually took me quite a while to think of an answer to this question, because I don’t really have a good grasp of the concept of a “date movie.” A good date movie is whatever both you and your date are interested in seeing. My boyfriend and I are both into a lot of different kinds of film and will go see just about anything, together or apart. I’ve heard people say they’d never want to see Blue Valentine with their significant other, because of its harsh look at the end of a relationship that started out pretty sunny, but we saw that together only a few months into our relationship, and we both loved it. So yeah.
But I think I found one. And when I ran the basic story of In the Realm of the Senses by my boyfriend, he agreed with me that it definitely sounds like a non-date kind of movie. I haven’t actually seen it, but the gist is this: a rich Japanese man and a maid (formerly a prostitute) begin a relationship at first because he molests her, but soon she is the instigator – fueled by secrecy and then pure passion and eventually destruction, their relationship moves from purely sexual to sadomasochistic, eventually culminating in the woman cutting off the man’s member. Sounds like a porno (until the end, anyway), but it’s a well-regarded art film. But not probably something you want to watch on a date.
Here’s the trailer: