Based on one of several classic shinjumuno (love-suicide) tragedies written for Bunraku puppet theatre by the 18th-century writer Chikamatsu, Yasuzo Masumura's The Love Suicides at Sonezaki captures the unrelenting emotional intensity of the original 300-year-old play by retaining the Bunraku theatre atmosphere in stylized settings, and black-clad puppeteers whose appearance underlines the implacability of tragic fate. The story (which was recently filmed again by Midori Kurisaki) deals with the thwarted affections between a young merchant and his courtesan-lover which eventually lead to a double suicide. Masumura's film was named by Kinema Jumpo as second out of the ten best films of its year, and features an award-winning performance by Meiko Kaji and a striking cameo by veteran actress Sachiko Hidari as the hero's mother. Masumura is a leading figure in Japan's postwar cinema; having studied in Italy and worked with both Mizoguchi and Ichikawa, he established his unique personal style in the mid-1950s with such films as The Build-Up and several erotic melodramas based on the literature of Mishima, Tanizaki and other Japanese writers.