Double Suicide

One of the (thankfully?) very few stage-to-cinema translations of kabuki theater, this Criterion mastered adaptation of Japanese playwright Chikamatsu's 18th century drama Double Suicide at Amijima centers on paper merchant and family man Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura), whose erotic obsession with the courtesan Koharu (Shima Iwashita) ends with tragic results. Maybe it's an East vs. West aesthetic issue, and then again, maybe it's dialogue exchanges like, "why do you love me?" followed by "because you're a woman and I'm a man," but whatever the problem here suffice it to say that if the film were twenty minutes longer it would have to be renamed Triple Suicide. Imaginatively staged, with an interesting soundtrack by famed composer Toru Takemitsu, but volunteer to fall on your sword instead before wasting your time on this. Not recommended. (S. C. Sickles)