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Saturday, February 17, 2024

SUPAI NO TSUMA / WIFE OF A SPY (2020)

Best known (at least Stateside) for artsy off-kilter horror*, this ambitious, but disappointing film from prolific Japanese writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a significant change-of-pace.  A period piece set during the opening salvos of WWII, with Japan’s savage occupation of Manchuria not seen, but playing out in the background.  (Still a dodgy topic in Japan.)  Returned from service and horrified by what he’s seen, the nephew of a film director smuggles in documentation (notebooks & film) of atrocities he hopes to bring to the public, shaming government, military & citizens into action.  But his plans are complicated by an old family friend, now a local captain in charge of espionage & morale, already suspicious of the director’s, his former classmate,  internationalist attitudes.  Just as threatening, it’s not clear which side of things the nephew’s aunt, fiercely loyal to her film director husband, leans toward.  It’s an intriguing setup, and, with options for action limited, the film, of necessity, concentrates on character rather than suspense or twisty plotting.  But to come off, Kurosawa needs to get details & tone just right, and here the film slips badly.  Little feels authentic to 1940, especially in how the cast present themselves which feels too modern.  And an over-polished, over-processed digital look, along with Kurosawa’s penchant for glaring light in his compositions (filling gaps in production values?*) stylistically draw us out of the story.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *For Kurosawa in his element, CURE/’97  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/10/cure-1997.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Listed as a TV Movie on IMDb which may explain the disappointing visual texture.

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