Double Suicide’s dynamic meta blend of theater and cinema shows that Shinoda understood the importance of the play’s bunraku origins in conveying the struggle between societal and emotional obligations, but decided to go even further to combine elements of kabuki (look to each actor’s intentionally outsized performances) and stage sets to further amplify the societal “stage” upon which each character must try (and ultimately fail) to navigate. Within the boundaries of the claustrophobic set, inauthentic actions, ultimately influenced by and inextricable from societal duties, are made literal.
In Double Suicide, style is substance - Persona-like composition of close-ups where ominous black-cloaked puppeteers positioned in front of and around the main characters make society’s oppressive forces and machinations tangible. And in the film’s most indelible image, the puppeteers helping Jihei hang himself exemplifies society’s ultimate role in their suicide.
Throughout the film, the camera is constantly positioned behind the bar-like structures that make up each set - a prison-like society trapping the characters. Never is this more apparent than when Jihei destroys the walls that make up the “set”, breaking with Japanese society for good. As the lovers renounce their life, they escape from the suffocating stage into nature and onto their next cycle of reincarnation.