Japanese biopics of the famous are usually hagiographies, treating their subjects with outsized reverence. This is not the case, however, with Ryuichi Hiroki’s “2 Women,” which fictionalizes the real-life affair of two flawed yet fascinating writers: Jakucho Setouchi (nee Harumi Mitani) and Mitsuharu Inoue.
Setouchi, who died last year at age 99, was a celebrated novelist, activist and, in the second half of her long life, a Buddhist nun. Inoue, who passed in 1992, was the subject of Kazuo Hara’s 1994 documentary, “A Dedicated Life,” which revealed him as a liar and philanderer but also an oddly charismatic figure.
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