[3] Tanaka's version of the Sada Abe story is inevitably compared with Nagisa Oshima's internationally-known In the Realm of the Senses.

The most obvious difference between the two is that Tanaka's film, intended for a Japanese audience, could not indulge in the hardcore elements that Oshima's version employed.

[4] While Oshima limits his timeframe to the period of the final sexual encounter, Tanaka gives a more rounded portrayal of Abe's life through flashbacks.

[4] Both Oshima's and Tanaka's versions were highly regarded by critics in Japan, and both films were considered among the top ten releases for their years.

[4] Midnight Eye's review of A Woman Called Sada Abe compares it to In the Realm of the Senses, notes, "Aside from being less sexually explicit, it is also smaller scale, more intimate, more cinematically stylised and arguably more erotic.

[1] Many Japanese critics consider it to be superior to Oshima's film, and Junko Miyashita is called a more realistic Sada Abe than Eiko Matsuda.

[7] Along with the earlier Roman Porno film, Wife to be Sacrificed (1974), A Woman Called Sada Abe was released to an enthusiastic reception in San Francisco in 1998.