Another Kurosawa (no relation) wins Silver Lion at Venice Film Festival

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film Wife of a Spy, about the conflict between a man who witnesses Japanese war crimes and wants to reveal them and his wife, who doesn’t, is also screening at the Busan Film Festival.

This would probably be a good time to talk about Kiyoshi Kurosawa! Anyone have any recommendations about his filmography? Any thoughts on his style?

I’ve only seen one of his films – Tokyo Sonata. It was very well reviewed at the time, but I remember being not very impressed – it seemed to me to be heavy handed and politically naive. I’ve seen a few Japanese films subsequently on the same overall theme – the gradual chipping away at the traditional Japanese secure job for life, and most were I think more interesting, although of course its always hard for an outsider to judge a film that is so culturally specific. Looking through his filmography, it seems he is a horror specialist, and apart from Tokyo Sonata hasn’t been well reviewed when he strays from that genre.

Perhaps I’m being a little cynical here, but given the current political situation between ROK and Japan, I wonder if the award was more for the theme than the film itself.

Ugetsu, I would agree with you if we were talking about an award from a Korean film festival, but since we’re talking about a European film festival, I’m not sure the current political situation between Japan and South Korea over a Korean court decision that treaties don’t bar a damages award against Japanese companies for the use of forced wartime labor enters into it. I sincerely doubt most or even any of the voters know about it or the trade war it’s sparked despite the current pop culture cachet of South Korea. (And of course here we’re talking about a Japanese director and film.)

I see, sorry, I misunderstood, i thought it won the award at the Busan festival.