Chikamatsu monogatari

Based on a famous play by Chikamatsu (Japan's Shakespeare), the film is set in 17th-century Kyoto, where an act of kindness by an apprentice to his miserly master's wife leads to a charge of adultery, a "crime" punishable by death. Going on the run -- and falling in love along the way -- the illicit couple is hunted by both the woman's husband and his business rivals, who think they can destroy him by destroying her.