Shinjû: Ten no Amijima

Similar to the fate of the star-crossed lovers in Romeo and Juliet, Double Suicide by Masahiro Shinoda is Shakespearean in its theme of lovers who are forbidden by society's rules to be together and can only find fulfillment in death. The film is based on a 1720 Kabuki (or Bunraku) puppet play, The Love Suicide at Amijima by Monzaemon Chikamatsu, who has been called the Japanese Shakespeare. As the film begins, black-clad puppeteers known as kurago are busy assembling puppets and setting the stage for the drama. Soon live actors replace the puppets but the puppeteers remain in the background, silent participants changing the sets, assembling the props, and "pulling the strings", representing perhaps the inexorable hand that guides our lives or as Shinoda has said the `thin line between truth and falsehood". The film is intensely emotional and has the feel of grand opera but the puppeteers make clear the artificiality of the drama and keep us distanced.

In the film, Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura) is a paper merchant who is married with two young children. Though he loves his wife Osan, he has been secretly seeing a courtesan Koharu (Shima Iwashita who also plays Osan) for two and a half years. He has dissipated his fortune at the brothel and now cannot raise enough money to redeem Koharu from her enslavement to the brothel's owner (Kamatari Fujiwara). Though his family finds out about their romance and Osan tries to persuade Jehei to sever the relationship, it becomes apparent that the bond is unbreakable and we watch helplessly as the inevitable tragedy unfolds. Double Suicide has a haunting score by Toru Takemitsu and amazing black and white photography, shown in sharp detail and contrast in the new Criterion DVD, and is highly recommended for a unique viewing experience.

Stemming from a Japanese puppet play from the 1700's, Double Suicide stands tall and beautiful as a new wave love story similar to that of "Romeo and Juliet" on the surface. Masahiro Shinoda takes some risky strides in his directing by utilizing a series of dark "puppet master" characters to linger in the majority of all scenes alluding to the story in its earliest form. This concept manages to workout wonderfully by some miracle and really compliments the thematic elements of the film as we watch the cast manipulate one another or "pull each other's strings." The performances are all stellar in this film as Shinoda makes sure to direct each to have a very vacant and detached approach to their roles allowing their characters to fall into the deceit of one another. Jihei, (Kichiemon Nakamura), is perfect in his dark conviction of his immoral affair with a 19 year old prostitute (Shima Iwashita), while still attempting to maintain a healthy relationship with his too-loyal wife Osan (also played by Shima Iwashita). Osan takes the feminist's nightmare role of a wife whom stands by her husband's side and is supportive of his every wrong-doing. The prostitute, Koharu, balances the relationship by playing the role of a friend to the wife and promising to end her affair while professing her never-ending love for Jihei when Osan is out of the picture. Everyone shares a shifting balance of power, control, and love for one another really adding up to the thrilling climax of this film.

Visually, this film is just as outstanding as is its narrative. The cinematographer plans his shots smart by finding the ideal balance for including the puppet masters in appropriate shots. This is a film full to the brim of wide and establishing shots with puppet masters cleverly tucked in the distant background of each frame opposed to using unnecessary close-ups. This is most similar to how puppet masters in the original puppet play productions would remain shielded in the darkness of the stage to remain being seen as little as possible.

Based on a 18th century bunraku play (Japanese form of puppet theater) by Chikamatsu, Double Suicide revolves around the star-crossed love of paper merchant Jihei and courtesan Koharu. The problem in Jihei's case however is twofold. First he's a married man and second he can't afford to pay the brothel Koharu works in and redeem her. In the face of their unrequisite and impossible love, Jihei and Koharu decide to commit suicide together - the inevitably tragic conclusion the title refers to.

Double Suicide is a three-act filmed play but it's director Masahiro Shinoda's command of the craft that transforms it into something more. Since the original is a bunraku puppet play, he opens the film with modern bunraku actors preparing for it and after the credits sequence switches the puppets for real actors.

The puppet masters however remain present for the entire movie, dressed in black suits, looking all the same, mute and mostly motionless, like artificial props and part of the set decoration they're charged with changing. Indeed they remove and change sets, actively take part in the action and interact with the actors and even freeze narrative time for our convenience but the best part (and a testament to Shinoda's talent) is that they never call attention to themselves as a gimmick.

They blend seamlessly with the combination of traditional and abstract painted sets and there are times you forget they're even present in the scene until they move. What they do mostly however is observe. Shinoda's direction is as usual perfect - enhanced by Criterion's pristine transfer, Double Suicide is a feast for the eyes shot in stark black and white, where the black is black and the white is white.

Related to Shinoda's excellent directorial skills, a common conception about him is that he's a director easy to admire but hard to love. I think Double Suicide effectively combines the best of both worlds - the technical prowess of a master cinematician with a touching and tragic love story, with universal roots but a very traditionally Japanese approach - the conflict between duty (giri) and passion (ninjo).

"Double Suicide" is a bunraku puppet performance at its core, with perhaps the only difference being that actual humans play the roles of the puppets.

The puppet masters, their faces covered with thin black silk masks, move around props, rapidly change the minimal sets, never interfering with the plot or the characters, yet moving them forward and cooperating with them in a way that is not at all distracting.

The puppets themselves are finely crafted, and the characters that they play present a depth of humanity that is rare in all forms of staged entertainment (whether it be a movie, a play, or the like). Being puppets, however, the viewer is left feeling detached from them, even if there is a sense of humanity present that one can grasp. Oddly enough, that is a good thing in this case - it increases the sense of how the only thing that one could do when the tragic events unfold is to watch.

This is not a film for all tastes, obviously. But the same statement can apply to the bunraku puppet play that this movie is based on. This performance is pulled off with perfection, and I highly recommend it.

10 out of 10

This film essentially begins with an attractive prostitute named of "Koharu" (Shima Iwashita) lamenting to her lover "Jihei" (Kichiemon Nakamura) that unless he can come up with some money to buy her contract she will soon be sold to a rich merchant that she despises by the name of "Tahei" (Hôsei Komatsu). This distresses Jihei who is totally in love with her and has tried everything he can in the last three years to raise the sufficient funds. To make matters even more complicated, Jihei is married to a devoted wife named "Osan" (also played by Shima Iwashita) and has two young children at home who depend upon him as well. To that end, realizing his predicament, his brother "Magomoen" (Yûsuke Takita) decides to intervene in order to convince Jihei of his responsibilities and to do that it requires him to discredit Koharu's love and commitment to him. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say this was a rather remarkable film which featured a technique I had never seen before in which stagehands were utilized to assist in the development of the story. Only later did I learn that this stemmed from a Japanese theater tradition known as kuroko and is often used in Kabuki plays. Another aspect of this film is the typical Japanese over dramatization involved between the actors to convey deep emotion. Since it's a cultural trait of many Japanese films and plays I will just say that it essentially comes with the territory and leave it at that. Be that as it may, although the movie drags a bit here and there, I found it to be quite entertaining overall and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.