Caution, Hazardous Wife: The Motion picture Evaluation

Caution, Harmful Wife: The Movie (2021) ) Film Evaluate from the 25th Yearly Fantasia Global Film Competition, a motion picture directed by Tôya Satô, starring Haruka Ayase, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Rei Dan, Fumiyo Kohinata, Atsuko Maeda, Minosuke, Naomasa Musaka, and Shirô Sano.

Memory decline, key brokers, corporate and governmental corruption, and a cosplaying subplot? Your shift, Jason Bourne.

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Tôya Satô’s Caution, Hazardous Wife: The Film is an enigmatic style gem of spycraft, intimate drama, and action-thriller aesthetics, wrapped up in a dense but digestible package which is as enjoyable a movie to enjoy as it is a puzzle to fix.

Serving as a stick to-up to the 2017 Nippon Tv set mini-series of the exact same identify (and seemingly selecting up right exactly where the exhibit remaining off), Caution, Dangerous Wife: The Film sees Haruka Ayase reprising her direct from the series as Kumi, housewife to schoolteacher Yuji (Hidetoshi Nishijima) in the seaside Japanese city of Tamami, in which she socializes with the locals on her morning errand operates, learns to cook dinner French delicacies, and performs initially-man or woman shooters to pass the time. But underneath her tranquil exterior Kumi is struggling from a terrible bout of amnesia, which sows doubt into every material of her staying. She needs to be content and pleased in her married tiny-town life with Yuji, but she will not be in a position to until she smashes as a result of her memory block initial.

However, that memory block is also shielding her from a traumatic past – not to mention a whole other identification that she’s unsure she needs any longer.

Kumi’s authentic name is Nami Isayama, and she’s a lethal industry agent who is effective for the Tokyo Police’s General public Protection Bureau. Yuji is basically Yuki, who is Nami’s companion and, coincidentally, her previous lover, who was on assignment with her when a botched assault missing her her memory. By way of (in)easy timing Yuki took Nami with him to Tamami, giving them both equally pseudonyms and new identities whilst he investigated a dollars laundering plan involving a methane hydraulics developer (Minosuke) and the town’s mayor (Rei Dan) – a plan with potentially destructive environmental outcomes.

Yuki does his ideal to juggle his investigative work with unlocking Nami’s memory and hoping to mend their partnership. Nami, on the other hand, grows weary of an mysterious pressure from her past that is slowly and gradually encroaching upon her, a thing which could throw her entire long term – and her journey in direction of recovery – into jeopardy.

The biggest feat of Satô’s movie is the sheer volume of tale he packs in, and thus the extraordinary scope that he’s ready to pull off. Along with writers Yukiko Manabe and Kazuki Kaneshiro (the latter of whom wrote the entirety of the unique mini-series), Satô crafts a compact, sophisticated globe of compact-city drama, marred romance, psychological turmoil, political intrigue, and international espionage – all of which right follows the events of its original series but is not dependent on claimed predecessor for comprehension (substantially fewer enjoyment). It would make feeling that this is a stick to-up to a mini-series, however – and that Satô himself comes from a tv background – as Caution, Harmful Spouse: The Transfer performs like a total new year expertly packed into two several hours.

All these particular person parts and times appear with their ideal genre signifiers, as very well, and nevertheless they by no means really feel at odds with one yet another. Somewhat, they express how Nami, Yuki, and the other inhabitants of Tamami practical experience intricate thoughts in overlap, and portion of their mission is the prosperous compartmentalization of them. In a way, the film is significantly less a absurd actioner than it is a tragic drama about conflicted figures at a crossroads.

Some could browse the film’s composition as far too episodic, particularly presented its quick pacing and the form of jumpy development it normally takes from scene to scene. But to compose off that enhancing would also discredit its inventive utilization when it comes to intelligent reveals and other duplicitous intentions, which keeps our viewing senses sharpened all the way by means of. Ayase and Nishijima’s tempered performances insert a great depth to the product, much too, shifting back again and forth involving subdued interior conflicts and a humorous sense of motion-chic stoicism. Of study course, Naomasa Musaka as Igarashi, the sexagenarian environmentalist activist managing a grassroots marketing campaign for Tamami mayor, steals his scenes with a fervent (if not outright comical) perception of passion.

In the conclude, Caution, Dangerous Spouse: The Film is an thrilling style-bender that both equally stands very well on its individual as well as in individual, intriguing items. It may well not be a miracle, but it is still a fabulously calculated shot.

Score: 7/10

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By Harmony