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Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

Posted By: Someonelse
Date: 5 Dec 2014 13:30:00
Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

Double Suicide (1969)
DVD5 | ISO | NTSC 4:3 | Cover | 01:43:35 | 4,45 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Art-house, Drama | The Criterion Collection #104

Director: Masahiro Shinoda
Stars: Kichiemon Nakamura, Shima Iwashita, Shizue Kawarazaki

Many films have drawn from classic Japanese theatrical forms, but none with such shocking cinematic effect as director Masahiro Shinoda’s Double Suicide. In this striking adaptation of a Bunraku puppet play (featuring the music of famed composer Toru Takemitsu), a paper merchant sacrifices family, fortune, and ultimately life for his erotic obsession with a prostitute.

IMDB | Criterion | Wikipedia | Senses of Cinema

Owing to the traditional kabuki theatre, Double Suicide is a movie that is based on and drawing its visual style from a 200-plus year old play about a married merchant and a courtesan who love in vain and feel double suicide is the only way they can be together.

Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

The movie, in fact, opens with the preparations for a puppet show, as the kurago, or black clad puppeteers, assemble their wooden dolls. The film switches instantly from these scenes to the beginning of the story, which is acted out by human actors, but with the presence of kurago wandering in and out and manipulating certain scenes, seemingly without the character’s knowledge. Here, director Masahiro Shinoda deliberately blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, as he does by also calling deliberate attention to his use of sets and costumes. Sometimes, actors enter or exit a scene through revolving walls: yet another way the film remains decidedly self-conscious about its theatrical ties.

Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

Jihei (Nakamura) is a merchant with a wife, two kids, and struggling paper business. He has been in love with Koharu (Iwashita) for two years now. Their love is desperate and emotional: his only hope to have her is to raise the money it would take to redeem her from her employer, and he has virtually no shot at it. They decide early on that the only way for them to be together is not in life, but in death (kids, don’t try this at home).

Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

Jihei’s behavior, quite naturally, is a disgrace to his family: how can a husband and father be so neglectful for the sake of a prostitute? His wife, Osan (also Iwashita), is heartbroken. Fearing the potential double suicide, she sends a letter to Koharu to spurn Jihei and thus spare his life. She does, and Jihei almost washes his hands of her. Osan believes now that she and her husband will be happy and successful…but in a striking scene, she removes the blanket from over Jihei’s head to discover him weeping for Koharu.

Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

After confessing she instigated Koharu’s infidelity, Osan becomes convinced she will carry out her suicide. She begs Jihei to go and redeem her by any means necessary. He tries, but is too late: a rich mongrel, who had been after Koharu for a long time, has already redeemed her and will be by the next day to collect his prize. The two lovers steal away before that can happen, and (I don’t think I’m giving anything away here, considering the movie’s title and the DVD cover art), they fulfill their solemn vow to one another.

Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

I’ve never seen a film quite like this one, and I was fascinated by its self-awareness and over-the-top sense of melodrama. Out of all the Japanese films I’ve seen, this one is easily the most deliberately emotional, with more tears shed during its running time than any other movie I can readily think of. The melodrama is so heavy handed that even the rich villain looks directly at us as he proclaims with a sneer, “Money is everything!” Yet, if I understand correctly, Shindoda’s choice is purposeful, maintaining his film’s link to the kabuki theatre traditions. The liner notes call this movie one of the very few that captured this classical bit of dramatic culture on celluloid, and that made it a much more interesting piece than had it just been a simple straightforward telling of a rather standard love story.

Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

The presence of the kurago always intrigued me, too…as the story itself was less than involving, these shadowy figures wandering in and out to move sets or assist the actors at key moments were less of a distraction and more of a point of interest. Were they meant to be literal, or did they represent, as puppeteers, a higher hand in control of these events and characters? I think the answer is open to some interpretation.

Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

At any rate, Double Suicide does represent a departure from the likes of Kurosawa and other more readily famous Japanese directors, and offers something a little off the beaten bath, and certainly an item of curiosity for fans of Asian cinema.

Double Suicide takes a standard, old fashioned, tragic love tale and manipulates it into something fascinating by blending both cinematic and theatrical techniques, and making the style a bit more significant than the story itself. Masahiro Shinoda’s deliberate sense of self-consciousness helps elevate the simple material into something much more intriguing. With this quality offering from Criterion, fans of unusual or stylistic cinema might find this an interesting night’s watching.
DVD Movie Central
Double Suicide (1969) [The Criterion Collection #104] [ReUp]

Special Features:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- New and improved English subtitles
- Booklet

All Credits goes to Original uploader.

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