"Emperor's Naked Army Marches On" (yuki yuki shingun) is a documentary that tells the story of Okuzai, a former WWII hostage, who is haunted by the memory of the execution of two fellow Japanese soldiers weeks after the war had ended and sets out to find out the truth on who executed them and their reasons for doing so. The movie starts slow but soon we see how far he goes to try and get the suspects to tell him the truth, resorting to lying and physical violence. The protagonist simply doesn't care how he does it, whether he ends up in jail or if everyone dislikes him, as long as he gets answers, showing that he believes that violence is the means to an end.
Director Kazuo Hara goes to great lengths to tell the story and not be involved, turning the viewers and himself into a fly on the wall. This is made clear when he doesn't stop filming when a fearless Okuzai starts beating up an elderly man who has just had surgery. That scene is a perfect example of how real this movie feels, Hara does a great job of not showing us things they way we want them to be but rather the whole truth.
"Emperor's Naked Army Marches On" captured my whole and undivided attention from the beginning and I found myself cringing at Okuzai's violence, laughing at his attitude toward the police, shocked at his methods for uncovering the truth, and at times, even rooting for him to get answers for himself and for the murdered soldiers' families. But most importantly, Hara and Okuzai succeeded in showing the viewers another side to the WWII, which would still be a memory in the minds of the soldiers that were in New Guinea, hadn't it been for their persistence in finding the truth.
Director Kazuo Hara goes to great lengths to tell the story and not be involved, turning the viewers and himself into a fly on the wall. This is made clear when he doesn't stop filming when a fearless Okuzai starts beating up an elderly man who has just had surgery. That scene is a perfect example of how real this movie feels, Hara does a great job of not showing us things they way we want them to be but rather the whole truth.
"Emperor's Naked Army Marches On" captured my whole and undivided attention from the beginning and I found myself cringing at Okuzai's violence, laughing at his attitude toward the police, shocked at his methods for uncovering the truth, and at times, even rooting for him to get answers for himself and for the murdered soldiers' families. But most importantly, Hara and Okuzai succeeded in showing the viewers another side to the WWII, which would still be a memory in the minds of the soldiers that were in New Guinea, hadn't it been for their persistence in finding the truth.