© Toei
Courtesy International Film Festival Rotterdam

(Naniwa no koi no monogatari). The plays of Monzaemon Chikamatsu have frequently been adapted into films, most notably Mizoguchi's Crucified Lovers, but few with the experimental intensity of Uchida's version of the kabuki classic The Couriers of Love Fleeing to Yamato. 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. The young lovers take flight to Yamato, but, as in Chikamatsu's other domestic tragedies of love and duty, they must be pursued and their passion destroyed by death. Favorite Uchida themes, such as the indenturing of a prostitute (see Yoshiwara and Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji), and his characteristic emphasis on performance and theatricality re-emerge here; but the daring device of having Chikamatsu himself appear as a character is just one of many surprises this remarkable film holds.

—James Quandt

• Written by Masashige Narasawa, from a novel by Monzaemon Chikamatsu. Photographed by Makoto Tsuboi. With Kinnosuke Nakamura, Ineko Arima, Hiromi Hanazono, Minoru Chiaki. (106 mins, In Japanese with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From National Film Center, Tokyo, permission Toei)