Nakano Spy School
Tribute to Yasuzô Masumura 2023 / Rikugun Nakano gakko / Japan 1966
Synopsis
What propels young men willingly to shed their identities for an uncertain objective? How far can men go to safeguard their vocation? Can morality realistically have a place in wartime? Masumura poses a myriad of thorny questions in this sober spy drama, stripping the genre of all its glamour and focusing on the cunning institutionalization of men too proud and too self-delusional to confront the legitimacy of their work. Set during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937, Raizô Ichikawa is Jiro, an idealistic young man who finds himself recruited in Japan’s first military intelligence school. Faced with stern ethical choices, Jiro is prompted to decide what kind of man he envisions himself to be.
Joseph Fahim
About the film
96 min / Black & white, DCP
Director Yasuzô Masumura
/ Screenplay Seiji Hoshikawa
/ Dir. of Photography Setsuo Kobayashi
/ Music Tadashi Yamanouchi
/ Sound Toshikazu Watanabe
/ Editor Tatsuji Nakasizu
/ Art Director Tadashi Yamanouchi
/ Production DAIEI studio, Kadokawa Corporation
/ Cast Raizô Ichikawa, Mayumi Ogawa, Daisuke Kato
/ Sales Kadokawa Corporation
Contacts
Kadokawa Corporation
2-13-12 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, 102-8552, Tokyo
Japan
Phone: +81 807 233 6972
E-mail: mori-c@kadokawa.jp
