Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s win of the best director award at this year’s Venice International Film Festival was covered by not only all the major dailies, but also by sports newspapers and tabloid weeklies that normally pay attention to Japanese films only when a scandal is involved.
That’s not to say Kurosawa’s film at Venice, the World War II drama, “Wife of a Spy,” is free of controversy. Star Masahiro Higashide, who plays a relentless military policeman, was tabloid fodder for months over an affair that led to his divorce in August from actress Anne Watanabe. One commenter on Twitter, @trendysocial, wondered if NHK, which backed “Wife of a Spy” and broadcast it prior to its Venice premiere, was “saying it’s all right to be unfaithful” by airing the film.
More central to the film itself, the story touches on Unit 731, a notorious medical research unit based in Harbin, China, that conducted experiments on war prisoners, killing many in the process. “I suppose this means the film is going to be called ‘anti-Japanese’,” Twitter user @taninakasan commented.