A tale of tragic romance. Brilliantly crafted and beautifully told. Adapted from Chikamatsu's bunraku play, Uchida makes a genius choice of letting Chikamatsu be a character in the story — he observes the events play out personally, taking inspirations, being deeply affected by what's happening but he's powerless to do anything, only way he can alter reality is with his writing. Uchida's direction is excellent, his compositions are rich and combined with dynamic and elegant camera movements he superbly brings this world to life. Where this stumbles a little is that it is perhaps with the distance it keeps from the events which adds nicely to sublime artificialty and theatrical elements but also in result becomes somewhat emotionally cold. Still the eventual tragedy is extremely moving thanks to Uchida's storytelling prowess and it's overall very good but it just doesn't hit that hard.
