Supai Zoruge

Just before WW-II and while it is developed the world is suffering many changes, between them the imperialist thoughts of Japanese people and the Communist actions taken by the Russians.

One day all of the sudden out in China Hidemi Osaki, a columnist for the Asahi Newspaper in Japan meets with Mr. Johnson (later known as Sorge) they both have something in common, they are very attracted to the ideals of communism and against the imperialist ideals of Japan.

Sorge being a Russian spy finds Osaki very helpful since he has access to all the information regarding the military strategies of Japan. But as the war advances the Japanese menace on Russian territory becomes very dangerous so Sorge is sent to Japan as a German columnist, there he is supposed to meet with other foreigners and a Japanese that is in the side of the American Government.

In Japan Sorge handles to find Osaki and makes a team who tries to prevent the advance of Japanese troops by means of sending information to the allies.

As time goes on, each member of the team finds its own place in the Japanese territory, its a story of love, loyalty, a little bit of action but the most attractive part of the movie is the historical content witch is very very complete.

This film was financed mostly if not completely by a German TV Network and was produced to be aired in more than one showings. Because of this the film seems to be a bit too long when seen in one session. The slow and overly posed acting becomes unnatural, never mind the fastidious obsession about superfluous details to fill the lack of content in many scenes. Visually is gorgeous if you like that kind of nostalgic images of objects and fashions: every body dresses as a designer model.

This historical film is more political in its intentions than historical. It is precisely because it is addressed to a German audience that its anti-communist message over-shadows Dr. Sorge spies exploits, his warning to Stalin that Nazi Germany would attack the Soviet Union on 20 June 1941, that Japan will not attack the Soviet Union in Manchuria but instead will attack Pearl Harbor in November 1941 seems to matter little to director Masahiro Shinoda. One wonders how a German audience may have received this film with the explicit message that the man who contributed to Hitler's military defeat in the East did so because he was a confused idealist.

Akira Kurosawa' s "No Regrets for our Youth" (1946) addressed part of this drama from the Japanese side. Kurosawa's views on idealism are or at least were at the time very different from Shinoda's. But of course we should never forget that history has to be judged in its context and 57 years can blur history in more than one country.

The movie should be interesting for an American audience. Even Miss Agnes Smedly appears in Shanghai and given the fact Miss Smedly is all but almost completely forgotten in America, except as feminist, the film brings a small but essential bit of American idealism to Dr. Richard Sorge's spy ring.

As the previous reviewer noted, the history is quite interesting. Especially concerning the political intrigues within the Japanese government and the context that lead to things like the 2.26 incident. However the acting in many parts was horrible bad. I don't know if this is because many actors aren't native English speakers so they can't act right when speaking in English or something, but I felt that many parts were just over done and had the feeling that the actors were amateurs. Plus there were way too many pointless scenes mixed in (the still scene of Nijubashi was put in there for countless times). Maybe in a Manga you'd put in those scenes to provide context, but certainly not in film.

Some people might say that this movie white washes Japan's role/behavior in WWII, but I that's not the point of the film. WWII and the 30s were just the backdrop to the story of Sorge and Ozaki, people whose sympathy for the poor had mislead them to risk their own lives and the wellbeing of their families to serve an ultimately futile cause.

The moral I got from this story is, don't give in to temptations to serve some greater cause and throw away the truly important things in life like love and family. Richard Sorge wanted to change the world, all he managed to accomplish was to ruin himself and the lives of the women who loved him, along with Ozaki who trusted him.

Personally I felt really bad for Katya, Hanako, Yoshiko, and Mrs. Ozaki. They really didn't deserve it.