Japanuary Challenge 2025 - Masahiro Shinoda 15/43

Asian Cinema Challenge - Scored by Toru Takemitsu 4/52

An ultimate Japanese tragedy of duty, impossible doomed love, honor, and sacrifice. Basing "Double Suicide" on an 18th-century puppet play and thus adapting it into a live-action version, Shinoda pays tribute to the original theatrical material with the opening scene featuring the puppets, obviously artificial sets, presence of kuroko (stagehands dressed entirely in black) and the amazing classical score
by Toru Takemitsu.
The beautiful Shima Iwashita gives a magnificent double-role performance of both Jihei's love interest, Koharu, the courtesan and Osan, the wife. With such unusual casting, Shinoda equates the two,
offering a social commentary on women's position in Japanese society as puppets in the hands of men.