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.
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