yu aoi

Japan Cuts XV Review: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s WIFE OF A SPY, War And Strategy Amid Matrimony

If you’ve seen your fair share of WWII movies, it’s no real mystery the challenges that lie ahead for our main characters going into Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s new period drama, Wife Of A Spy. The 1940s were a trip as world governments collided, and dehumanizing atrocities were taking shape at the hands of countries like Germany, and of course, Japan. Kurosawa nimbly crafts his story around these events, inviting viewers into a character study, specifically of one woman who, despite all her daily exuberance at life and subservience to her husband, gets thrust into confronting her own identity when she learns a horrific truth for herself, and her husband’s flummoxing role in it all. Our story begins in 1940, just as a British businessman gets accosted and taken by Japanese authorities from a raw silk firm in Kobe, where Yusaku Fukuhara (Issey Takahashi) manages a trading post. His pastimes occasionally include […]

‘Zan’, ‘Tokyo Ghoul’ Star To Lead Nikkatsu’s Untitled War Drama Launched For Sales At AFM

Lee B. Golden III

Liz Shackleton at Screen International Magazine reports that actress Yu Aoi will star in an untitled war drama from director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata, To The Ends Of The Earth). Sales outlet Nikkatsu has the rights for the project set in Kobe, Japan in 1940 when a merchant witnesses a conspiracy and decides to take action, and his wife tries to stop him in order for his protection. Kurosawa is currently production shooting the film in 8K Super Hi-Vision and is penning the script with Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Asako, Asako II), and Tadashi Nohara (Happy Hour). Tokyo-based C&I Entertainment is producing. Some of Aoi’s recent credits include Shochiku’s live-action adaptation, Tokyo Ghoul, as well as bloody period sword drama, Zan (a.k.a. Killing), which earned director Shinya Tsukamoto the 2019 CUT ABOVE Award For Outstanding Achievement In Film.

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JAPAN CUTS Review: Shinya Tsukamoto’s KILLING Cuts Deep Into The Existential And Horrific

Lee B. Golden III

Shinya Tsukamoto’s latest film takes a toll on the senses with Killing, a chilling eight-minute chanbara drama that suitably provides a template on which the multi-hat wearing filmmaker gets to exhibit the more visionary ends of his craft. The story and setting are encompassed by a foreboding undertone in Killing in which we engage the story of Mokunoshin Tsuzuki (Sosuke Ikematsu), a samurai tentatively housed with a farming family. Partaking on his share of the workload, he also spars at wooden swords with the son of the family Ichisuke (Ryusei Maeda), whose sister, Yu (Yu Aoi), shares all but concern regard her brother’s desire to be as talented a samurai as is their guest. The same goes for Tsuzuki who plans on leaving for Edo very soon for the battlefield. One day, a chance meeting with Jiaremon Sawamura (Shinya Tsukamoto), an aged ronin upon whom they spotted in a duel […]