Wife of a Spy (2020)

find somewhere to watch this film because this is an experience none of you should miss out on.

(*vague spoilers ahead. see below.)

TL;DR: Wife of a Spy is a masterpiece of a film that must be savored to be understood. it will wreck you emotionally, however, as the subject matter is heavy (though somewhat sanitized), so start this only when you're ready.

"(...) i will be insulted as the wife of a spy. is that your justice? what about our happiness?"
"happiness built upon injustice?"
"i'll still choose happiness."
"don't act like you know. you didn't see what i saw... i saw it. if i was chosen by fate, i must do something about it."

finished this film last night, had to take a moment to soak it all in and ended up rewatching the last 5 minutes at 3:00 am and sobbing bc of it. this had the honor of being one of several firsts—the first film of the year, the first title on MDL that i've given a review, the first Japanese film i've ever watched, and the first piece of Japanese media that i've watched in a long, long time (three years, to be exact, if you count the handful of anime that i attempted to complete but never did). if i ever get my hands on a dubbed version of this in Korean, despite my hatred of dubs in foreign media (i know they released this in Korea during a film festival but idk if it's subtitles only or if it's fully dubbed), i would watch it all over again bc there is something about this that i can't put my finger on but that lingers all the same, even now. hell, tbh once i've gotten confident in Japanese i'd watch it without any subtitles at all
this was,,,, a ride? i know i sh*tpost a lot on the feeds and this turn of phrase generally has a more crackhead vibe to it but this in particular is one of my more serious reviews and as such i felt this needed to be shared. it was filmed almost like a theater performance, very intimate, very bare-boned and reduced to the important details, and that served to be one of its strengths. at its core, WOAS is a story about human beings and the choices that they make when faced with something that could quite literally mean life or death, whether for them or for others like them. for Satoko, it means staying by her husband's side, even when she doesn't exactly understand his motives and it seems he has abandoned her, as poignantly seen in the last 15 minutes or so of the film. for Yusaku, it means pursuing what he believes to be justice—when the war is lost, Japan has lost, and that is best for the rest of the world, despite the deaths of his own people. for Yasuharu, it means to stay with what he finds familiar, but familiar is not always right. whether he realizes that eventually, however, we are not told. this ending, in all its vagueness, fits him, and as a result draws parallels between him and another of what i consider to be one of the most interesting (albeit non-Asian) characters i've come across to date, Rolf from The Sound of Music. the two, in both worlds, will always lose more than they have gained.

i'll be honest here and say that the first half of this film was good. not extraordinary, imo, just good. the second half, tho? sucker punch to the gut that just kept on giving, and i feel like it was bc of the actors' performance that somehow stopped being a performance and started to be LIVED. Takahashi Issei and Aoi Yū each lent their own power to this film that made it what it was—Takahashi with his portrayal of a man who lives in the blurred lines between black and white, and Aoi with her portrayal of a woman who stands in his shadow before stepping out to create her own. i can't help but feel that this film was more about her than about Takahashi, in a sense, bc even though his discovery becomes the catalyst for what follows it is her that we see when the world as we have come to know it finally crumbles, it is her grief (anger?) that we feel in its closing scenes. (also never thought hearing Aoi Yū say "i'm scared" in the smallest voice ever would break me in the beginning of the year of our Lord 2022 but congratulations, it did!) as such, it feels like a fever dream once the credits begin to roll (one that reminds me personally of the effect Mitski's music has as well), but it is one that is all too real—this, we are reminded, is based off of historical events.

eventually, this film comes full circle—whereas in the beginning Satoko is reluctant, unwilling, even, to give up what she has known for the cause that the man she loves believes to be right, the turning point occurs just before the two part ways. "if you're a spy," she says, "then i'll be the wife of a spy." even in the end, it seems at first, without a husband, a home, or a homeland, she remains one, but Yusaku is quick to remind us that she is not a spy. nor is she the wife of one. she is someone standing up for what she believes in, just like the countless others before her, and there is no need for her to hide. the only ones that consider her a spy are the ones who do not want her to speak.

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