Do you remember the Chained of Hitchcock, with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant ready to play double agents to bring down a small Nazi group taking refuge in South America? We find a little the same spirit in The sacrificed lovers, awarded at Venice in 2020, on a very different spy film plot, because Japanese, but faithful to the spirit of the master both in terms of suspense and glamor.
This time, the action takes place in Japan in 1941 on the eve of its entry into the war alongside Germany and Italy. The country is experiencing a nationalist and bellicose surge that the very pretty couple in love with modernity formed by Yusaku and his wife Satoko take a dim view, and which will not fail to suck them up …
Suspicion and doubt
We will not detail the adventures that await them, but they are fascinating and will lead them to Manchuria, testing ground, by the Japanese army, of biological weapons on Chinese prisoners. The many twists and turns are remarkably brought up (the screenplay is by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the director of Drive my car) and staged (by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, expert in provoking fear).
This is how, surreptitiously, suspicion and doubt begin to interfere, even in the most banal acts. “A simple family dinner, for example. I can’t find a more complex and inspiring material than this, explains Kiyoshi Kurosawa in the film’s intent note. As the camera captures the seemingly ordinary everyday life of Satoko and Yusaku, the audience holds their breath in anticipation of a turnaround. This powerful form of cinematic expression is what we call suspense. “
Suspense and elegance
The actors add to this suspense what it takes of elegance. With a special mention to Yu Aoi, actress discovered in France in the mini-series Shokuzai from the same Kurosawa.
The bottom of the story remains, taboo subject and little documented in a country that does not like to look back on its past, which has led Hamaguchi and Kurosawa to take liberties, but whatever. The possible improbabilities, which were also the salt of certain great Hitchcock films, did not prevent The sacrificed lovers to be a huge hit in theaters in Japan.