Abstract
It is rare today to find a film as highly stylised as Shinju: Ten no amijima (Double Suicide) – especially one in which the stylisation is so exquisitely sustained across every level of set design, performance, sound and dramaturgy. Based on a bunraku theatre script written by the most famous premodern Japanese dramatist, Monzaemon Chikamatsu, Double Suicide is a period film set among the merchant class of Osaka. The inability of a merchant, Jihei, to pay out the debts of his lover, the courtesan, Koharu, leads to their decision to seek a shinju – a lovers’ suicide – so they can be together in the next world.
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 2 |
Journal | Senses of Cinema |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Keywords
- Chikamatsu, Monzaemon, 1653-1725
- Japan
- Shinju ten no Amijima
- feature films