#marriage and other traditional relationship stuff gives me the ick

[martritzvonmercie]

i am so obsessed with the concept of relationship anarchy. i think more people should give up entirely on the concept of traditional relationships and blur the lines between friendship and romance with all of the people they love

[ym021]

Double Suicide by Shinoda Masahiro - Blog 13

Double Suicide by Shinoda Masahiro is a 1969 historical drama based on a bunraku, a traditional puppet theatre. It is about a married man, Jihei, and his lover Koharu, a courtesan. Jihei has been having an affair with Koharu for two years and his unfaithfullness and lack of responsibilities for his family causes a internal conflict with his in-laws. They convince him to cut ties with Koharu and fulfill his duties as a husband. In the end, Jihei does not keep his promise and attempts to redeem Koharu, which results in Osan getting taken back home by her father. Unable to redeem her, Jihei and Koharu run away from the brothel and commit shinju, a double suicide. 

After watching Double Suicide, I really enjoyed the bunraku style of the film. It was very different and intriguing to watch. Each scene was detailed and expressive. One of the details that stood out to me was the flooring in Jihei’s home. It looked like it was part of a script of writing, like we were watching a visual of a reading. Although I enjoyed the style of the film, I felt a lot of icks towards Jihei. Especially in the scenes where he has a one on one confrontation with his brother, Magoemon, with Koharu next to them. In this scene, Jihei completely blocks her from his mind and does his best to protect what he has left of his reputation and pride in front of Magoemon. He goes as far to agree that she is deceitful and that he should beat her for cheating on him. Despite his love for Koharu, he goes as far to turn his back on her after agreeing to commit Shinju together and their twenty-nine promises. His personality is very immature. The other scene that was disgusting to watch was his conversation with Osan. After she finds out her husband was crying for Koharu, she feels extremely unloved and depressed, for everything she does is to preserve the family and want the best for her husband. In response to her, Jihei spouts a lot of nonsense about his relationship with Koharu and nothing on Osan’s feelings and what she has done for him. Jihei was not only immature, he is also very manipulative and selfish. He is used to taking advantage of Osan’s kind and forgiving behavior to the point where he did not want to divorce her and was able to emotionally convince her to give him money and pawn all her clothes, along with his own children’s clothing, in order to raise money to redeem Koharu. Although he did not say anything to convince her to give him anything, his behavior is naturally manipulative that he can do it without speaking directly of his wants and needs. After the items were put together in a bag, Jihei vocalizes that he was a bad man for doing this stuff to Osan, funny enough, his actions does not show any sort of sincere empathy or regards to her besides speaking of self-loathing.  The theme that Double Suicide by Shinoda Masahiro is infidelity, marriage, and women in traditional society. It explores the affair between Jihei and Koharu and Jihei’s falling marriage. The film also shows the sense of duty between the two women. Koharu did not want to break the promise between her and Osan, going as far as wanting to kill herself so Jihei did not have to. Although she loved Jihei deeply, she did not want to marry him and break Osan’s family apart. Meanwhile, Osan does not want Jihei to die because of Koharu, but she also does not want her to kill herself due to not being able to love Jihei no more. The feelings between the two women are conflicting and unfortunate that they fell for a man like Jihei.