Movie Review: The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On

The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)

"You had your way and I had mine. We can't be born together and die together."
"But we all have something in common. We did something terrible."

Kenzo Okuzaki fought for the Japanese in World War II in New Guinea. Even though he survived the war, he found he could not escape it. He decided to devote his life to shouting the truth about the war from the rooftops in order to prevent anything like that from happening again. Early on in the movie we see him driving around in a truck covered in giant billboards that denounce the Emperor, see him being hassled by the police and hear him talk about past arrests without shame.

In this Japanese documentary, we watch Okuzaki investigate the deaths of two of the men who served in his unit. Okuzaki believes they were sentenced to death by their superiors and then executed but the details are unclear. Throughout the film, he shows up unannounced at the homes of the former soldiers and confronts them on camera. One by one details emerge but, like a real life "Rashomon", all perspectives conflict. Were they killed before the war ended or after (when such an execution would be murder)? One says they tried to desert, another says he wasn't there, another says that yes he was. One says the execution was ordered, another says the captain was acting on his own.

When Okuzaki feels the interviewee is not telling the truth, he sometimes gets violent. Not very common to see in a documentary. He brings the surviving relatives of the victims along to increase the pressure to tell the truth. But when the relatives no longer want to participate, he hires actors to play them.

One of the dead soldiers relatives believes her brother was killed in order to be eaten. And that isn't even the most shocking thing that happens.

This is an astounding look at buried pasts, the horrors of war and people's ability to ignore guilt. I can't believe I've lived this long without ever even hearing about this movie. This is a must-see documentary with scene after scene of mind-blowing revelations. More than most other documentaries, it is proof that truth is truly stranger than fiction.

8/10.

IMDB 250 7.10 - Throne of Blood (1957)

Throne of Blood (1957)

Between battles within medieval Japan, two warriors are lost in a mysterious forest. Suddenly an old man appears (possibly a ghost) and prophecies that one of the men will become Emperor and the other will be the father of an Emperor. Do you take this prediction seriously? And if so, what do you do?

The film deals with questions of fate, predestination, free will and Machiavellian politics. You almost feel that knowing the future makes life MORE confusing, not less. Even if you know your future and it's something good, can you screw it up? Do you do nothing and suppose it happens "magically" or should you act? The questions are delicious.

It's another example of East meets West as the story is based on Macbeth, replacing medieval Europe with medieval Japan. A pleasant surprise is the "special effects" (for lack of a better word). The final scene features a man under attack by a barrage of arrows and, in 1957, you know it's not CGI. But how?

Not Kurosawa's best but even on a bad day he's still excellent.

7/10.
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 359.

IMDB 250 7.6 - Tokyo Story (1953)

Tokyo Story (1953)

A grandmother sits with her grandson and watches him play in the grass. "What are you going to be when you grow up? A doctor like your father? ... By the time you become a doctor, I wonder if I'll still be here."

In 1950's Japan, an elderly couple travel to Tokyo to visit their children and grandchildren. But their children lead busy lives and have little time to talk before the couple must be heading home.

These days, that wouldn't be enough to make a movie. "Tokyo Story" is Japanese, it's black and white, it's from the 50's. It's slow, it's quiet, it's reserved. The "dramatic" things that happen here are things like one of the young children becomes cranky or the dad gets called into work unexpectedly.

But if you can wrap your head around all of the above and see past it, there is beauty in its simplicity. It's extraordinary by being ordinary. The grandparents, the parents, the children, the siblings are all characters we know - we are these characters. And this movie allows us to sit with them and spend time with them and examine and observe.

The grandparents live far away so their time with their families is rare and brief. So what do they spend their time talking about? Train times, the weather, what they'll be eating. If any of these characters says ONCE out of every thousand opportunities, what they really feel, what they're honestly thinking or what any other person means to them, it's a major and dramatic surprise.

Are we any different?

7/10.
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 355.

IMDB 250 7.3 - Harakiri (1962)

Harakiri (1962)

"The greatest delicacies taste of nothing when eaten alone."

When peace comes to Feudal Japan, a Samurai finds himself out of work and on the brink of starvation. When he appears at the gates of a fortress and says he wants to invoke the right of "harakiri" (the right of ritualistic suicide) he's obliged. As he insists on stalling the proceedings to tell his own history, the samurai wonder what his motives really are.

"Harakiri" is a tremendous story of poverty, desperation, resentment and revenge. That the story is masterful is no surprise - the writer, Shinobu Hashimoto, also wrote some of Akira Kurosawa's greatest films ("Rashomon", "Ikiru", "Seven Samurai"). It begins slowly with a simple questioning of the main character's motives and very slowly builds suspense as we learn more and more details of his past.

Watching it, I was struck by how it was simultaneously Eastern and "Western". Though the actors are Japanese and the weapons are samurai swords, it particularly resembles the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone. Note the tracking shot of a man's shadow as he walks across sand. Watch the extreme closeups of a man's sweaty face as he waits for an attack. Note that the drama is in extending the anticipation leading up to the fight rather than the fight itself. Most surprisingly, watch how the conical Asian hat is wielded for dramatic effect EXACTLY like a cowboy hat.

But the film is undoubtedly Eastern as well. It's a classic samurai movie - perhaps the classic samurai movie. And it's amazing how much movies like "Kill Bill" can borrow from a movie made in 1962.

8/10.
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 352.

IMDB 250 7.2 - High and Low (1963)

High and Low (1963)

When a wealthy businessman receives a call that his son has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom, he and his wife panic and agree to pay the money. A few minutes later, their child walks into the house after a day of playing. The kidnapper has taken the wrong boy but insists on the ransom anyway. The family must decide whether to pay the ransom or risk the life of someone else's child.

As a big Akira Kurosawa fan, it's interesting to seem him make a film set in fairly modern times (modern in the 1960's when it was made). There are suits, thin ties, cocktails and cardigan sweaters. It's almost Kurosawa meets "Mad Men". But the theme is still just as classic: will an ordinary man sacrifice all his wealth and possessions to save someone's life? Feeling pressure from his wife, the police and his business partners, it's still the decision of a single man and his conscience.

Where the film weakens is when it strays from this intriguing sociological experiment. The question of the ransom is only a third of the movie - the other two thirds is dedicated to finding and capturing the criminals. The film transforms into a 1960's police procedural drama. Although well crafted and with significant twists and turns in the case, it's still quite a let down, particularly as there are currently a hundred "CSI" and "Law and Order" shows running around the clock doing essentially the same thing. This movie gets a pass for doing it first, but still, it's not the same.

6/10.

Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 351.