Awarded the Silver Lion for best director at this year¡¯s Venice International Film Festival for his suspense drama ¡°Wife of a Spy,¡± Kiyoshi Kurosawa could get the sort of career boost that helped make the previous Japanese recipient of the prize, Takeshi Kitano, an internationally recognized auteur. (Though Kitano got a bigger leg up for his 1997 Venice Golden Lion winner ¡°Hana-bi¡± than his 2003 Silver Lion awardee ¡°Zatoichi.¡±)
Kurosawa¡¯s three-decade career has certainly been a brilliant run, but in terms of his reputation abroad, he¡¯s long been a step behind Kitano and Hirokazu Kore-eda, winner of Cannes Palme d¡¯Or ¡ª the festival world¡¯s ultimate prize ¡ª for his 2018 film ¡°Shoplifters.¡±
Kurosawa has arguably been more thematically and even geographically adventurous, though, venturing far from his horror-genre comfort zone to make the 2019 road movie ¡°To the Ends of the Earth¡± in Uzbekistan.
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