Fruits of Passion

"Fruits of Passion" (Les Fruits de la passion, 1981) is a French-Japanese drama you can watch online on iFILM. Japanese avant-garde director Shuji Terayama picks up the story of O — the submissive heroine of Pauline Réage's cult novel — and moves it to a Shanghai brothel, where O (Isabelle Illiers) once again bends to the demands of her much older lover, played by Klaus Kinski.

A young pauper catches a glimpse of O and becomes consumed by her. He joins a revolutionary cell not out of any idealism but to earn enough money for one night with her. Arielle Dombasle appears in a supporting role. Terayama turns the erotic premise into something formally strange — Japanese staging, European cast, a cold eye on power and submission that makes it closer to a fable than erotica. Stream "Fruits of Passion" (1981) online on iFILM.