SummaryThe year is 1940 in Kobe, the night before the outbreak of World War II. Local merchant, Yusaku Fukuhara, senses that things are headed in an unsettling direction. He leaves his wife Satoko behind and travels to Manchuria. There, he coincidentally witnesses a barbarous act and is determined to bring it to light. He leaps into action. Meanwhile, S... Read More
Directed By:Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Written By:Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Tadashi Nohara
Wife of a Spy
Metascore
Generally Favorable
79
User score
Generally Favorable
7.0
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
100% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Oct 22, 2021
100
Wife of a Spy is in some ways an imperfect film, sometimes stiff at the joints or broadly obvious, but it’s also carefully crafted and conceptually inspired.
Oct 21, 2021
89
The story is captivating, the characters are magnificently fleshed out, and the emotional stakes are entirely, utterly believable.
Sep 17, 2021
79
Wife of a Spy doesn’t necessarily change its tone when the stakes are raised so much as shift its concerns from what’s on the surface to what courses underneath in a time of war.
Sep 15, 2021
75
The movie is sometimes quiet and poky to a fault; a few cheap pulp thrills might’ve made it feel more vital from start to finish. But Kurosawa and co-screenwriter Ryusuke Hamaguchi do gradually build tension and intrigue across Wife Of A Spy’s two hours, while also openly confronting a dark chapter of Japanese history.
Sep 14, 2020
67
While this crisp and subdued Hitchcockian melodrama represents yet another unexpected pivot from a filmmaker who’s never liked putting one foot in front of the other (it’s Kurosawa’s first period piece), it’s also just a well-done slab of red meat from someone who hasn’t served up a satisfying meal in so long that it seemed as if he might’ve forgotten how.
Sep 11, 2021
63
Wife of a Spy could use a streak of live-wire, huckster crudeness, a bit of melodrama delivered in an unselfconscious manner.
User score
Generally Favorable
88% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
13% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Jun 13, 2022
8
the director respects the history and all actors and actresses are at their levels, i love this movie!
Sep 17, 2021
7
In my opinion this story never manages to build a pulsating tension like I think it should have done because of its subject. However, Wife of a Spy turned out to be a better film than I expected. The story deals with a Japanese couple before the start of World War II. The husband is a wealthy businessman who does not seem to agree very much with the authoritarian influence that is hanging over the country, while his wife lives unconcerned with her career as a non-professional actress. After certain events, that erases the slowness of its beginning, it's when the title of the film takes context, although it's never established that the character is a spy, but the entertaining film in which this story becomes is more than enough to justify the time invested. I reiterate that the tension is not as overwhelming as I would've preferred, because despite the risks, they never feel as terrifying as it should be to be persecuted by your country with the intention of being captured, tortured and executed for treason, but in all honesty I did enjoy this one.
Production Company:
- C&I Entertainment
- ENBU Seminar
- Incline
- Kirinzi
- NHK Enterprises
- NHK
- Weroll
Release Date:Sep 17, 2021
Duration:1 h 55 m
Awards
Asian Film Awards
• 3 Wins & 5 Nominations
Venice Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Huading Award
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
