Double Suicide (1969) User Reviews

Intensely emotional

[howard.schumann · 8/10 · 10 May 2004]

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.

Original Theatrical Japanese Shakespearian Love Story

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 8 September 2006]

In 18th Century in Japan, the paper merchant Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura) falls in love for the courtesan Koharu (Shima Iwashita), but he can not afford to redeem her from her master and owner of the brothel, since he spent all his money in the place with Koharu. Jihei's wife Osan tries to keep her husband with his two children and asks Koharu to leave him. The two lovers make a pact of double suicide to escape from the rigid rules of the Japanese society of 1720 and stay together after death.

"Shinjû: Ten no Amijima" is an extremely original movie, based on a Japanese puppeteers theater (called "Bunraku") popular play by Monzaemon Chikamatsu. The Shakespearian story of an impossible love is theatrically performed, inclusive with the presence of the "kuragos", the puppet masters that conduct the puppets in the "Bunraku". Although being much related to Japanese culture, this movie is a great experience for those like me that have interest in other cultures. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Duplo Suicídio em Amijima" ("Double Suicide in Amikima")

Double Suicide Review

[brian-ariotti · 9/10 · 11 November 2008]

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.

Truly one-of-a-kind

[kaworu-3 · 10/10 · 19 May 2001]

"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

Unique and mesmerizing

[dgray-1 · 10/10 · 5 June 2003]

A mesmerizing film which asks deep questions about the role interplay] of fate and free will in human actions. The occasional appearance of hooded background figures and their actions, sometimes just to change the scenery, is done in such a casual manner that it underlines the view that we are not always in full command of what is perceived to be our reality. The ending is truly stunning. A one of a kind experience!

Shakesperean clash between duty and love

[chaos-rampant · 17 October 2008]

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).

Japanese arthouse drama...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 29 January 2023]

...based on the 18th century play by Chikamatsu. Married paper merchant Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura) falls in love with indentured prostitute Koharu (Sima Iwashita), and promises to raise the money necessary to secure her freedom. However, when their plans look unlikely to succeed, they swear to commit suicide together to be united in eternity. Sima Iwashita also plays Jihei's long-suffering wife Osan.

Director Masahiro Shinoda opts for a highly stylized production. The film open with a bunraku, or puppet show, troupe preparing for a performance of the play while Shinoda is heard discussing the film's script with screenwriter Toru Takemitsu. When the story finally gets underway, the performances range from realism to kabuki expressionism, while the sets are also a blend of the real-world with the deliberately artificial. The most striking aspect is the presence of stagehands, dressed in black from head to toe as is the traditional way in stage performances, lurking about the sets. Their otherworldly appearance and silent presence turn them into a sort of grim reaper hovering over the characters, signaling their inevitable fate.

Double Suicide (1969)

[mevmijaumau · 10/10 · 13 February 2015]

With highly stylized, indisputably unique art-house films like Masahiro Shinoda's Double Suicide, it's always a challenge to describe these works because there's just so much to say. This movie is considered to be one of the most notable films from the Japanese New Wave, aka the "movement that never officially existed but let's just call it a movement" movement, which is nevertheless one of the most thematically and artistically fascinating movie periods.

Double Suicide is based upon the 1721 play The Love Suicides at Amijima by Monzaemon Chikamatsu, which touches on one of Chikamatsu's apparently recurring themes, love and individuality getting royally owned by the system. This play is often performed in bunraku (puppet theatre) style, while Shinoda's film mixes avantgarde techniques with bunraku and kabuki theatre styles. The sets are strange and not at all realistic; huge white floors with doodles and letters/kanji characters written all over them, revolving background walls, characters getting lost in the indoor decor with giant traditional drawings all over the walls and floors, and so on. Sometimes, the footage goes into slow-motion or the camera just freezes on a single frame for a dramatic effect. Some half-second long establishing shots are repeated. The backdrops change their appearance as the film progresses. For example, the calligraphic texts on the walls of the protagonist's shop become amorphous ink blobs dripping down.

Kichiemon Nakamura and Shima Iwashita (who plays both main female characters), as well as the other actors, do a great job in their extremely theatrical and melodramatic roles, fitting in with the rest of the kabuki charm this movie has going for it. Before the three-act storyline begins, we have the opening credits scene which shows the puppets for the play being prepared (before getting substituted by real- life actors), while we listen to a phone conversation between Masahiro Shinoda and Taeko Tomioka (a co-writer), where they discuss the script as well as location hunting for the penultimate scene.

Another notable factor is the use of the kuroko (black-clad stagehands), a Japanese theatrical tradition. The kuroko intervene in nearly every scene, but they never come across as a gimmick. Sometimes they fit in so naturally that you forget they're even there until they move. They assist the actors in handling objects, they prepare the stage and the backgrounds, but never literally interfere with the storyline; after all, they're just spectators, such as ourselves the audience. One scene in particular I find to be amusing - after a character receives a letter, a kuroko takes it and brings it closer to the camera so the viewer can read it, while the two actors in the background freeze and stay still until the kuroko returns the letter to one of them. Now they can finally snap out and resume the dialogue.

The final 10 minutes are pure genius. The much-awaited suicide scene (it's not even a spoiler because the title and the intro make it obvious) has gorgeous photography all around. Just the shot of the kuroko standing at the far end of the bridge while the lovers are positioned in the middle is one of the most astonishing and memorable film shots I've ever seen. It all culminates in the incredibly shot hanging scene (the kuroko, of course, are there to prepare the noose), accompanied by Toru Takemitsu's fantastic score (he also co-wrote the film), before settling down to the shot of two corpses laying on the ground which closes the movie suddenly, without any ending screen or anything (or is my version of the film defective?)

Double Suicide is one of the best Japanese New Wave films I've seen and the proof that a creative filming style can single-handedly salvage a plot that in itself is not that interesting.

A Remarkable Film Featuring a Unique Japanese Theater Technique

[Uriah43 · 7/10 · 6 June 2020]

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.

not a frame that is not perfect

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 12 October 2015]

Fine film. I usually prefer non historic Japanese films but this is really very good and the tendency to being ponderous is not here at all. Watched this after seeing the wonderful Pale Flower, directed by Masahiro Shinoda a few years before this and was not disappointed. The film opens with a discussion as to how the suicide sequence is to be shot and we see traditional Kabuki puppets, all during the opening credits. Historic setting and very traditional goings on, not good news, I thought but how wrong. Once the film begins we are in the territory of live action only, although there is the sensational element of puppetry in the form of black cloaked 'puppeteers' forever hovering around, attending to the main protagonists and changing scenery about. There is not a frame that is not perfect and despite the plot being remarkably slender, this is riveting and all involving.

Beautiful and chilly masterpiece

[MissSimonetta · 10/10 · 22 February 2022]

There's definitely a cultural gap here if you're watching DOUBLE SUICIDE from a westerner's perspective. I've read a translation of the original play, but have never seen a performance with actual puppets as it is usually done. This film is interesting in that it uses human actors but still contains the theatrical conventions of "bunraku." We see puppeteers in black manipulating character poses, changing scenery, and planting props. This is done for more than just the thrill of being avant-garde. As in Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET, fate plays a major role in the downfall of the lovers and having puppeteers manipulate the actors suggests they are not entirely in control of their sad destinies.

The acting will no doubt come across as "too stagey" to people who think cinematic acting equals mumbling every line. The style does put the audience at some distance from the action, but it allows allows us to be more contemplative. On the whole, I found DOUBLE SUICIDE stark and absorbing, a true love tragedy.

Artful And Mildly Entertaining.

[net_orders · 4/10 · 21 September 2016]

Viewed on DVD. Restoration = five (5) stars; subtitles = four (4) stars. Director Masahiro Shinoda's inventive and dramatic use of a layered presentation technique where a play about making a movie is the movie, sort of. It is a tale of a philandering husband confronting a mid life crisis during Japan's feudal age (a mashup of the usual Shomin-Geki (house drama) and Jidai-Geki (period drama) photo play genres) culminating in the "traditional" lovers' joint murder/suicide . The clever use of helpful and ever-present "stage hands" dressed top-to-toe in black (like those who move things about in the dark between scenes of a stage play) is both menacing and fascinating (they even turn up in the on-location exterior death scenes). Puppets appear in the opening scenes without explanation and then are gone forever without explanation (there is derivative reason for this, but it is missing from the movie). An abstract Torii (a Shinto shrine archway) is used for assisted suicide (or is it willful execution?) with the help of many stage hands (the Director seems to be editorializing here). At about mid point, the movie turns seriously boring from the cumulative impact of nonstop, over-the-top acting histrionics, script repetitions, and scenes of talking heads (the film has been overly stretched and could be cut roughly in half). Cinematography (narrow screen, black and white) is okay (this antiquated format seems to have been used to appeal to art-house theater patrons of the day). Restoration is fine. Score is close to being acoustically invisible. Subtitles are all but missing from the opening credits. They also need some judicious re-editing given the screen flash rate and their accuracy (hey, it's not easy to find translators with Kansai-Ben skills who will work cheap!). Mostly a case of art for art's sake. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Stagehands As Fate

[boblipton · 9/10 · 27 May 2019]

Kichiemon Nakamura is a paper merchant, desperately in love with courtesan Shima Iwashita and she with him, but she has five years left on her contract and he does not have the money to free her from it. He is also married -- his wife is also played by Miss Iwashita, who is married to the director of the movie, Masahiro Shinoda -- and so they speak about killing themselves together. In the meantime, their love has become common gossip.

It's based on Chikamatsu Monzaemon's 1721 joruni puppet play THE LOVE SUICIDES AT ANIJIMAI; a live performance soon followed. Monzaemon (1653-1725) was the son of a masterless samurai. It is uncertain when he wrote the first of his more than 130 plays, but his earliest known credit was 1683's THE SOGA HEIRS. He wrote for puppet plays and, until the middle 1690s, kabuki. He is widely thought to be Japan's greatest playwright.

This production acknowledges both forms. The play starts in a theater, with a producer speaking of the problems; some mannequin heads bespeak of the puppet drama. The rest of the movie is kabuki-like, with artificial-looking sets and masked stagehands in black to move props around, follow the lovers as their go about the course of their tragedy, and aid in their suicide. Their presence in the cinematic medium, which usually stressed naturism, gives them a weird, demonic purpose as the executioners of fate.

Greatest Japanese Film

[jay4stein79-1 · 10/10 · 1 April 2006]

I had never heard of Shinoda or Double Suicide prior to enrolling in a Japanese literature and film class in college. The memory of watching it, though, remains with me. As I did when I first saw Chinatown or Greed or 2001, I sat there like a codfish, mouth open and catching flies. I had never seen anything like it, and I have not seen anything like it since.

The film is based on Chikamatsu's 18th-century bunraku play (a type of play that uses puppets and leaves the cloaked puppet masters in plain view of the audience) and offers a wonderful translation of that text and that style of theatre. That's correct, cloaked puppetmasters move about on screen along with the characters. This element and this element alone could have caused my love of this film to grow. It's a simple choice, really, but creates such depth to the story. In the traditional play, the puppetmasters were there because they had to be. In the film they become fate, guiding the actors through the world. It's a wonderful touch and an interesting concept.

The photography of the film is incredible as well, though; the stark black and white melding beautifully to the basic, raw emotions of the characters and the harsh view of love put forth by the film. The set design is mindblowing as well, with its over-sized woodblock prints of that era.

The film has a visceral impact on its audience, but it does so without overly manipulating one's emotions. If anything, the audience is kept at a distance from the characters and is therefore unable to feel anything sentimental for them. However, the film's bleakness is effective and affective, giving one the feeling, at the end, of having been punched in the guts. Granted, such a feeling is not for everyone, but I appreciate films that can affect me in such ways.

Another can't-miss Shinoda film from a particularly purple patch of his career!

[talisencrw · 9/10 · 22 September 2016]

Even though I'm Christian and have always been brought up considering the act of suicide a 'taboo' subject, I have always held great respect for both the Japanese way of doing so to save face, and the thoroughly romantic notion, say, from the likes of 'Romeo and Juliet' (with Shakespeare's writings being probably the cornerstone of Western thought)--so from two completely different cultural perspectives--that a life without the one you love is not worth living.

I had previously only seen two of Masahiro Shinoda's other works for The Criterion Collection--the earlier works 'Pale Flower' and 'Samurai Spy', and I don't know if it was on purpose by the company in selecting the titles, but I marveled at the breathtaking variety of his scripts, all from such a short timespan (1964-69). Being a patron of the theatre (in many different modes) and as anthropologically cosmopolitan in my approach to life as is conceivable, I salute Shinoda with a profound respect, and look forward to investigating as many of his other works as possible.

fascinating new ideas

[daustin · 9/10 · 6 January 1999]

Not a perfect film, but fascinating. Anyone interested in truly original cinema should see it for the elements of bunraku (Japanese puppetry)used in the film.

This film would seem to play much better with Japanese audiences than those in other parts of the world.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 9 July 2011]

"Double Suicide" is a film that reminds me strongly of "Yûkoku"--a film that came out three years earlier. Both are about a couple tragically fated to commit suicide together and both go beyond the fourth wall--at times showing that it is all really just a play with actors. And, both were strongly appreciated and embraced by Japanese audiences--something that is particular to this society. I really don't think a movie where the audience knows the couple who are the main characters will have to die by the end would create a lot of ticket sales in the West--especially when this is known by the audience before the film even begins. There is a beauty in suicide that is strictly Japanese--making these sort of films difficult to fully appreciate and understand.

"Double Suicide" begins with the fourth wall--actors readying for the movie, producers and directors discussing the locations, etc.. This is a highly unusual move and was done because this film apparently was originally a play--with a rather familiar theme for Japan. So instead of trying to hide this, the beginning pays homage to it and the film shows its stage roots various times throughout the story.

The story involves a poor man (Jihei) falling for a prostitute (Koharu). His goal is to buy her contract and free her, but he just just can't manage it because his business is not doing very well. So, for most of the film Koharu broods--making her a very unsuccessful prostitute since no one wants to sleep with a woman who constantly talks about killing herself. As for Jihei, he broods as well and interrupts any potential clients from having sex with Koharu--as he's jealous. However, this cannot go one forever and you know that by the end of the picture both of the lovers will have given up on the idea of marriage and they will be dead.

So is this any good? Well, since it won so many Japanese awards, the answer is an emphatic YES...provided you are Japanese. However, for other audiences it is far less satisfying--though you must admit that the film is well-constructed and very stylish. I see that Criterion has produced this DVD, so there must be some audience outside of Japan for it (after all, I am watching it and the few other reviews for the movie are all quite positive)...but it will definitely be a niche audience and I can't see this appealing to the average viewer. Not bad....just not particularly enjoyable due to there being little suspense about the ending (after all, it's "Double Suicide") and the film seems to drag in between. After having watched several hundred other Japanese movies, I just can't see this one as being among the best the country has to offer.