TOKYO — The director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is best known for horror movies depicting the dark undercurrents of life in modern Japan and the vengeful ghosts that haunt it. But the evil spirits lurking in the background of his latest film are a real-life horror from the country’s past — the Imperial Army’s testing of biological and chemical weapons on human subjects in Manchuria before and during World War II. The movie, “Wife of a Spy,” garnered Mr. Kurosawa the award for best director at the Venice Film Festival last month. When the film is released in Japan this month, it is likely to cause a stir in the country, where wartime atrocities remain the subject of intense controversy and are seldom seen on the big screen. Winning a top prize at an international film festival is a major victory for Japan, which has invested heavily in promoting its culture industry through its Cool Japan program.

Source: International New York Times October 10, 2020 09:00 UTC