Wife of a Spy

Maine Film Center | Railroad Square Cinema presents

Cinema EXPLORATIONS:

A COMMUNITY-CURATED FILM SERIES

Sponsored by Colby Center for the Arts and Humanities

Master filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa (unrelated to Akira Kurosawa) won the Silver Lion (Best Director) at the 2020 Venice Film Festival for this riveting, gorgeously crafted Hitchcockian thriller. The year is 1940 on the eve of World War II. Import-export merchant and amateur filmmaker Yusaku, played by Issey Takahashi (KILL BILL), senses his nation is on a disturbing path. After a trip to Manchuria, he is determined to expose what he witnessed there and secretly filmed. Meanwhile, his wife Satoko (award-winner Yû Aoi) is visited by her childhood friend—now a military policeman. He warns her that Yusaku is under suspicion of working with Japan’s enemies and reveals that a woman her husband brought back from his trip has died. Satoko confronts Yusaku, but soon finds herself torn among loyalty to her husband, the life they have built, the country they call home, and a moral universe that exceeds national boundaries.