Monday, February 25, 2019

Romancefest 2019: The Crucified Lovers

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Written by Yoshikata Yoda, Matsutaro Kawaguchi and Chikamatsu Monzaemon
Starring Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyoko Kagawa, Yoko Minamida and Eitaro Shindo
Japan, 1954

In feudal Japan, a scroll-making apprentice finds himself on the run with his miserly boss’s wife when they’re mistakenly accused of adultery, a crime punishable by crucifixion. On the lam, the two fall in love for real.

This movie has a Criterion release but unfortunately I watched a DVD-R from the days before Criterion and it appeared to be a recording of a VHS version. So, the sound was bad, the image was bad, but I still gave it a fair chance. I’ll have to watch it again some time under better circumstances because it appeared to have beautiful cinematography. The story itself was entertaining, although so soap opera-esque in the first act that it was hard to keep things straight every now and then. But, once the soon-to-be lovers are on the run it’s easier to track.

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