Synopsis
Double Suicide (心中天網島, 1969) is a Japanese drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Masahiro Shinoda. Paper merchant Jihei is hopelessly in love with the courtesan Koharu and desperate to buy her out of the brothel — but he has a wife, children, and debts that grow faster than any plan he can devise.
The source is Chikamatsu Monzaemon's 1721 puppet-theatre play, and Shinoda leaves the theatrical machinery in the frame on purpose. Black-robed kuroko stagehands move props and set pieces in full view of the camera throughout the film. Watching them, you're inside a ritual, not a realist narrative.
Shinoda's real-life wife Shima Iwashita plays two roles: Koharu and Jihei's wife Osan. The film claimed a Silver Bear at the 1969 Berlin Film Festival and stands as one of the central works of Japanese art cinema of that decade. Stream Double Suicide (1969) online on iFILM.
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