Wife of a Spy is a layered and subtle drama that carries more significance than what is initially seen.

| Original Score: B | Mar 8, 2023

We have seen a lot of spy thrillers set in Europe, usually with American or British spies, but WIFE OF A SPY is a bit different. This, the latest film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is set in 1940 in Japan, and has as its spy a Japanese businessman.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 18, 2022

Only a seasoned storyteller like Kurosawa could pull it off, and hes aided in his quest by co-writer Ryusuke Hamaguchi. If that isnt a cinematic match made in heaven, what is?

| Feb 21, 2022

Kurosawa's effort doesn't feel like a state-approved film. Quite the opposite. Some Japanese politicians would prefer to neatly pack away its less savory role in the war.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 12, 2022

The devastating revelation of what Yusaku is really keeping hidden-or, perhaps, trying to expose-puts a political frame around the action while calling back to the apocalyptic horrors of Kurosawa's previous genre masterpieces.

| Dec 21, 2021

A Japanese tele-film with interesting enough storytelling (and a 53- minute 'Making Of' documentary included on this Kino Lorber Studio Classics blu-ray).

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 26, 2021

The smooth Yusaku drives the action, but the film's soul is Satoko, a woman in love who just wants to do the right thing.

| Original Score: B | Nov 11, 2021

146 / 5000 Translation results Everything is at stake and little is defined in this ambiguous and intriguing script that surprises us at all times, and that concludes with an ingenious ending {Full review in Spanish]

| Oct 31, 2021

...Kurosawa looks deeper, arguing that the purest act of love is not loyalty but trust.

| Oct 29, 2021

Wife of a Spy isn't a terrible film, but it does feel like it needed a little more something -- budget, scope, scale -- to make an impact.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 22, 2021

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's first period film ingeniously approaches Japan's dark military past through the gateway of a vintage thriller.

| Oct 22, 2021

Kurosawa hits high marks by staring a story straight in the eyes, and finessing every narrative bump to deliver the smoothest, most satisfying historical drama you're likely to see this fall.

| Oct 20, 2021

A slow-burn, Machiavellian film that's peculiarly hung up on appearances.

| Oct 18, 2021

Hats off, then, to courageous films, nonfiction or scripted, that acknowledge egregious historical transgressions, and, even more rare, to find a way to incorporate admission in a dramatically compelling work.

| Oct 13, 2021

Does not look like a film about darkness; indeed, everything in this movie seems drenched in light made of cream, a kind of glow that affects the production design and costuming so much it becomes heady.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 7, 2021

Slow compared to an American pot-boiler, this story has enough soul for any two of the usual spy movies.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Oct 5, 2021

The threat of war and the war itself give Kurosawa's absorbing, puzzle of a movie an epic quality that adds to the feeling that we're watching a movie in which the stakes hardly could be higher.

| Oct 1, 2021

Looks more like a dress-up soap opera than it does a historical period drama.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 1, 2021

The film's early going requires some patience, but that pays off in surprising ways as the story unfolds.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 30, 2021

While it takes a long time getting there, Kurosawa's drama finally does have an impressively epic arc, with a couple satisfyingly cruel ironies.

| Sep 30, 2021