The Double Suicide of Sonesaki could be described as the Japanese incarnation of Romeo and Juliet. Two lovers, outcast from society but obsessed with each other, decide to commit suicide together in order to preserve their pride and the purity of their love. As this synopsis suggests, this is also another Masumura picture in which he explores the insanity of love. Based on a popular doll play by Monzaemon Chikamatsu (1653-1725), the story was adapted to the screen before, most notably by Masahiro Shinoda in 1969 with the surreal Double Suicide. But where Shinoda's version veered frequently into the fantastic, Masumura, though working on a noticeably very slim budget, turned in a more realistic effort, concentrating on the madness of love, rather than the mechanics of the story.
Watching the movie, I kept thinking about a German gameshow that was popular during the 1990's called Geld oder Liebe (Money or Love). Singles were paired up and had to accomplish different tasks. During the course of the evening, the pairings would change so that at the end, the audience would have seen everyone interact with every other contestant. The audience could vote on their favorite couple. The winning pair then had the choice between going on a date paid for by the network, or taking money they had won by performing the tasks during the show and go home alone. In Double Suicide, there is something similar going on. The woman, Ohatsu, is a prostitute and has been sold to an old merchant who wants to take her away from Osaka. The man, Tokubei, has been raised by a merchant and has been promised to a woman, with which he could hold a new shop in Edo, also far away from Osaka. They have the choice between betraying their love and live in luxury, or stay true to their feelings and reject wealth.
Our lovers have to fight against the power structures created by the money, and their only way out, it seems, is death. The people subjecting them would have spent a lot of money in vain if Ohatsu and Tokubei were to keep up the relationship, refusing to bow to the forces of society. This ties into the larger thematic that can be found throughout Masumura's work: society's constraints and individual actions to "fight the power". The lover's relationship is illicit. They break out from the societal mold and try to live a life on their own terms. But since this is not possible in a highly regulated society like 1700's Japan, their only way out is suicide. In the afterlife, a place that is thought of as more free, where individuals can do as they please, they will reunite and finally be able to consummate their love, without the strains of their cast. Only in death can they live out their individuality.
I don't want to push it too far, but I discuss in my post about Masumura's 1971 film The Music how Reiko, the female main protagonist, could only experience sexual pleasure with impotent men or during necrophiliac acts. Could death as an agent for liberated love be seen as a common theme in Masumura's late oeuvre? Unfortunately, only few of the director's later films are available to the Anglo-Saxon audience. But taking into account the 1969 film Blind Beast, in which the sado masochistic sexual practices of a kidnapper and his captive lead them to kill each other as a substitute for the ultimate orgasm, we may be on to something here (Further considering what one can read about films like Lullaby of the Earth (1976) and Eden No Sono (1980) which I wasn't able to find but who are both described as psychological sexploitation films may reinforce this theory). In any event, The Double Suicide of Sonesaki is a wonderful offering from a director who's commanding style and meticulous camera blocking overcomes what must have been an evanescent budget (at times, the clunky lighting looks like taken straight from a halting student film). The two main performances are convinving in all their histrionics and Masumura's usual ironic detachment from the film text makes its glorious pathos all the more satisfying.
0 comments:
Post a Comment