Magic Lantern: Spies, climbers and Bayou angst

Above: Sakoto Fukuhara and Issey Takahashi star in "Wife of a Spy. (Photo/Kino Lorber)

Moviemakers love a good spy story. Just as the release of the latest James Bond film approaches, the Magic Lantern Theatre will open an espionage film on Friday titled “Wife of a Spy.”

It’ll be one of three films to open at the Lantern, the other two being “Blue Bayou” and “The Alpinist” (which is playing at AMC River Park Square).

“Wife of a Spy”: What's unique about this film? The fact that it’s Japanese, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and the spy referred to in the title find himself confronting his own country as it gears up for what will become World War II.

The actions the guy takes affects not just him but also, clearly, his wife (played by Yû Aoi) – which isn’t exactly something that the intrepid 007 tends to worry about.

Here are some critical comments:

Glenn Kenny, New York Times: “ ‘Wife of a Spy’ is something like linear narrative perfection, with every scene perfectly calibrated.”

Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter: “An absorbing, exotic, well-paced thriller with moments of disconcerting realism and horror.”

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: “It's like a three-quarter scale version of a Lean epic, a mid-level ‘Zhivago’ or ‘English Patient,’ but all the more intriguing for being relatively modest in scope.”

The other films opening:

“Blue Bayou”: A Korean-American man (Justin Chon) with a troubled past faces the prospect of being deported, forced to leave his family and live in a country he doesn’t know.

Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service: “A tale of intergenerational traumas and personal redemptions that is an emotionally complicated yet ultimately cathartic viewing experience.”

“The Alpinist”: Solo climber Marc-André Leclerc attempts some of the most difficult solo ascents possible.

Wendy Ide, The Observer: “It's an intriguing insight into a particular kind of obsessive drive, and a portrait of a man who, as one of his contemporaries remarked, feels almost too comfortable on the side of a mountain.”

I’ll update as the week progresses.