Dolls / Dorozu (2002)

I had not originally intended to write about Takeshi Kitano's Dolls, since it had wide international release and has been often discussed by other writers. However, after I have now seen hundreds of other Japanese movies, the film seems to take on a different significance than when I first saw it. Dolls was not the …

Double Suicide at Sonezaki / Sonezaki shinju (1978)

The love suicide has permeated Japanese popular culture, almost as significant a subject as seppuku itself.* Chikamatsu’s Double Suicide at Sonezaki was one of the major drivers in the subject's popularity, as it was the first play (initially for bunraku then later Kabuki) in which both lovers were commoners. Given its immense popularity on stage …

Double Suicide / Shinju: Ten no Amijima (1969)

One of the simplest yet one of the most complex of Japanese movies, Shinoda’s Double Suicide adapts Ten no Amijima, one of the most popular of Chikamatsu’s domestic suicide plays, to film. Unlike Mizoguchi’s adaptation of a different love suicide play, however, Shinoda theatricalizes the film medium without ever suggesting he is filming a stage …

Traitors of the Date Clan / of the Blue Castle / Ayaushi! Date rokujuniman koko (1958)

Even when you have seen hundreds of them, Japanese movies still hold the possibility of surprise. Traitors of the Date Clan is a good example. For over an hour, it is a plod at best, then out of nowhere it shifts sound and look for an absolutely brilliant sequence, before returning to a plodding, though …

The Loyal 47 Ronin / Chushingura (1958)

The story of the 47 Ronin had a particular resonance for Japanese audiences, and it has been told on screen numerous times. Thus, it is no surprise to find that Daiei, the studio that was most deeply committed to the jidai-geki and chanbara in the fifties and sixties, should turn to the story for one …

Osaka Elegy / Naniwa* ereji (1935)

Though it follows a basic story that Mizoguchi used regularly, the downfall of a good woman, Osaka Elegy is also arguably Mizoguchi's most "western" movie. From the opening scene out of the Bickersons through to the heroine's walking away from her family to make her own way, it could have come out of any studio …

Chikamatsu’s Love in Osaka / Their Own World / Naniwa no koi no monogatari (1959)

Chubei has been adopted into a family to learn the business and eventually marry the daughter. Dragged by a friend/customer to the pleasure quarter, he is trapped reluctantly into spending his first night with a woman, the popular and lovely courtesan Umegawa. They fall in love, and when a rich man tries to buy Umegawa, …