Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954)

Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 近松物語

Director: Mizoguchi Kenji

Writers: Yoda Yoshikata, Kawaguchi Matsutarō, Chikamatsu Monzaemon

Cinematographer: Miyagawa Kazuo

Composers: Hayasaka Fumio, Mochizuki Tamezō

Cast: Hasegawa Kazuo, Kagawa Kyōko, Shindō Eitarō, Ozawa Saka, Minamida Yōko

Mizoguchi’s affecting melodrama, set in 17th century Kyoto – a time and place where (female) adultery was still punishable by crucifixion – follows a pair of doomed would-be lovers as they flee from her husband (and his boss) into the countryside in a desperate, ill-fated attempt stave-off the inevitable. Iain.Stott