This classic tale is the Japanese Romeo & Juliette. Kaji Meiko, best known in the west for her two revenge films where she plays Lady Snowblood, with a secondary following for her earliest films which are demeaning sexploitation films, her best work after Lady Snowblood remains practically unknown in the west. In Double Suicide of Sonezaki she is at the height of her physical beauty. When the starcrossed lovers get to the climactic suicide scene, it is stretched out & stretched out in lurid detail & their white garments are totally encrimsoned by the time they have finished the horrific chore. Yet it does not play out hammy or exploitative, it is the saddest most edge-of-the-seat intensity of emotion, a bloody tearjerker infused with aesthetic gorgeousness that leaves the viewer awed & drained. -paghat the ratgirl
Review of Double Suicide of Sonezaki
