Chickamatsu’s love in Osaka

A young man falls in love with a prostitute and his life is changed forever

The adopted son of an Osaka courier falls in love with a prostitute and, discovering that she is about to be purchased by a client, steals money from his employer to redeem her.

Hunted criminals, the two young lovers take flight to Yamato, but, as in Chikamatsu’s other domestic tragedies of love and duty (known as sewamono), they must be pursued and their passion destroyed by death.

Uchida's characteristic emphasis on performance and theatrical artifice re-emerge here; but the daring device of having Chikamatsu appear as a character – not unlike having Shakespeare interpolated into a film adaptation of one of his plays – is just one of many surprises this remarkable film holds. The grumpy, worldweary figure of the playwright is placed directly into the action as a powerless observer trapped on the wrong side of the stage, able only to observe and comment but, crucially, with the ability to remake reality by altering his tale in the telling.

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