Oshima's spin on the notorious 'pink' film is a brazen and vivid thriller that takes a Hitchcockian premise (a murderer is blackmailed by a thief) and turns it into a exploration and allegory of post-war materialism, greed and sexual exploitation.

Having murdered a man who raped one of his students, teacher Wakizaka finds himself blackmailed into hiding a huge
some of money. Increasing unstable and deteriorating further into a spiral of guilt and obsession, Wakizaka succumbs
to his baser impulses and decides to spend the cash on indulging his every impulse and sensual urge - and face the
consequences later ...

Pleasures of the Flesh sees Oshima first embrace the themes and visual motifs of pornography, sadism and obsession that characterise his later works.