Speaking of the scale of Japanese film and television dramas, I think many people have seen it.
To some extent or perspective, scale is also a kind of boldness, but it is not really bold.
However, "The Spy's Wife", starring Yu Aoi and Takahashi, definitely deserves the word "bold".
Because the film dared to touch the bottom line of their own country - to expose the black history of Japan.
Let's first briefly introduce this director Kurosawa Kiyoshi who has such courage.
Known for making horror films, Kurosawa kiyoshi is a guarantee of the credibility of horror films, and during the heyday of Japanese horror cinema in the millennium, his works even became the collective memory of many people.
He made "Circuit" and was even remade by Hollywood, but unfortunately, the Hollywood version of "Ghost Circuit" has become a classic big bad film in film history.
His filming of "Atonement" set a precedent for the rare "cinema and television synchronization" of that year.
Unfortunately, he later became worse and worse, and such a miserable bad work as "The Day of the Perfect Plesiosaur" made him synonymous with bad films and one of the directors in the blacklist.
Until this film not only became one of the best films of the year by several Japanese websites, but also won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.
Finally, I saved a little confidence in him, who knows, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
This movie is not a tense and exciting spy war-style movie like Zhang Yimou's "On the Cliff", nor is it the ambiguous and chaotic emotional theme played by Liang Chaowei and Tang Wei in "Color Ring".
The story in the film is much simpler than imagined, and it is how a wife learns that her husband has become a traitorous spy.
Like "Atonement", "The Spy's Wife" is also a Japanese TV version of the movie, and in the case of less production costs, it is difficult to have as many large scenes as the same spy war theme, or even only a few scenes, feeling like watching a stage play.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that such a subject that exposes Japan's black history is so bold that it is very bold to tell the narrative from a critical perspective, but that's about it.
The story is very simple, but the film is narrated in a very lengthy way, both the plot and the emotional line are tasteless, and even the emotional changes between the couple are too abrupt and difficult to invest.
After watching "Chance and Imagination", I found that this movie was written by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and I was disappointed.
Who knows, his usual chattering self-intoxication is even more disappointing in films with historical backgrounds.
What is even more unexpected is that it also won the "Best Screenplay" award of the Japanese Shunbun, which I really dare not compliment.
If it weren't for the fact that Yu Aoi and Takahashi had collaborated again in their lifetime, this would have been another disappointment for Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
On the eve of the Pacific War, the businessman Fukuhara Yusaku learned that Japan had carried out inhumane experiments in Manchukuo while working in Manchukuo, and after filming the records, hoped to make the relevant truth known to the world and let the world know about the atrocities of the Japanese army.
When his wife, Satoko Fukuhara, learned of her husband's decision, even though she was given the name "Wife of a Spy", she risked her life and risked being arrested to help Fukuhara Yusaku.
The two plan to take the risk of bringing the information to the United States, and in order to make her husband's operation successful, Satoko makes a bold decision...
01. The film examines the atrocities of the Japanese army in a manner similar to "exposing", which is really bold enough
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the film is that the background of the story is such a bold and direct critique of right-wing militarism.
When I first saw the subject matter of this story, I thought that the film was nothing more than a pacific war as a background, telling a love story involving espionage elements.
Unexpectedly, the entire film almost in the form of a scolding criticism to expose the evil deeds of the Japanese army in the northeast that year.
Coupled with the indignant lines of the male protagonist played by Isseiko Takahashi, it seems that the Japanese people face up to their own black history.
With such a strong political twist, it's hard to imagine that this is a Japanese film, and its boldness is about to catch up with German films.
As a Japanese television station's 8K ultra-high-definition TV version of the movie, "The Spy's Wife" even has a large number of scenes like a stage play, but each scene and object and props are extremely elaborate.
Even if you know it's on set, you can recreate the landscape of the eve of Japan's storm. Even on screens that don't have up to 8K picture quality, you still get a visual sweetness.
Bold is bold, and the shooting is also very elaborate, but for a movie, I still feel that it is not OK, the reason is -
02. The film's name "The Spy's Wife" has no spy elements, and the depiction of the wife is even more unsuccessful
The lack of visual aesthetics and bold political implications, the lack of a good script and directing skills, or make the film seem rather lengthy and boring.
The entire film has an excessive chatter, which once again "confirms" the high and low scores on Hamaguchi Ryusuke's script.
As the name "The Spy's Wife", the film's depiction of Satoko as the protagonist is extremely one-sided, and it is supposed to be a smart woman.
But in fact, she is an impulsive woman who lacks rational thinking, and easily believes in others, and only acts according to her husband, but she cannot write how much she loves her husband.
At the beginning, Satoko mistakenly believes that her husband is having an affair, and inadvertently "beats" her husband, but only changes her mind between a few words of dialogue, and wholeheartedly supports Yusaku.
I thought it was a plot of a bureau and a double-sided spy, but it turned out that Satoko's position could change in an instant.
This can also be regarded as a love movie to some extent, but no matter how devoted Takahashi and Yu Aoi are, the hollowness in the script is difficult for the audience to feel how affectionate the two are, but more like a working partner than a husband and wife.
03. The plot did not have much ups and downs, but it was filmed for 115 minutes, resulting in the middle of the section looking stuffy
The plot of the movie is too shallow, and it is not as tense as the spy war genre of "On the Cliff".
In the process of advancing the plot, whether it is the military or the husband and wife, there is no surprising victory trick, and there are only a large number of lengthy and tasteless literary dramas on both sides.
As a result, the film has neither a "spy" element (in fact, it is difficult to call a spy), nor an emotional drama to speak of.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's self-absorbed script is even if it is placed in a film with a very personal style, but it seems out of place in a movie with a historical background of a big era.
It is said that the film initially lasted more than two and a half hours, will the escape plan of the male and female protagonists be more extensive?
But now I just feel that everything is logical, and the twist of the ending is only a little abrupt.
The only thing to commend is that Issei Takahashi and Yu Aoi have once again played a couple with a bit of twists and turns after the last movie.
Even if the script seriously lacks the portrayal of the two people's emotional drama, their role is still full of sparks, so as not to make the relationship degenerate into a godlike appearance.
In particular, Aoi Yu's performance in the later paragraph finally brought a climax to the movie.
All in all, this movie is not as tense and exciting as Zhang Yi, Yu Hewei, Qin Hailu and others starring in "On the Cliff".
Nor is it a spy-like love movie like Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard starring in "The Spy League" or "The Ring."
It is just a reference to the background of a large era to describe a black history of Japan.
Of course, the film's bold touch on Japan's right-wing militarism did open the eyes of the audience.
Unfortunately, director Kurosawa's technique still has not improved, coupled with Hamaguchi Ryusuke's poor script, resulting in a very lengthy and tedious film.
Both the spy element and the love element are missing, and the story of a "spy's wife" is not depicted in depth at all.
The film was widely acclaimed, but it was really overrated, and therefore brought me a great sense of gap, is it because of the lack of film sources in 2020?
Kurosawa Kiyoshi's bad films one after another, full of thought that with the addition of Yu Aoi and Takahashi's life and the praise of the tide can save the decline, who knows it is still disappointing.