According to critic Tony Rayns, Kagero-za “may well be Suzuki’s finest achievement outside the constraints of genre filmmaking.” In this hallucinatory adaptation of work by the Taisho-era writer Kyoka Izumi, a mysterious woman invites Matsuzaki, a playwright, to another city for a romantic rendezvous. While Matsuzaki is on his way, his patron appears on the train, claiming to be en route to witness a love suicide between a married woman and her lover. Reality, fantasy, life, and afterlife blend together in Kagero-za—most spectacularly in the grand finale, in which Matsuzaki finds his life morphing into a deranged theatrical extravaganza.