I remember reading an interview with director Hara in which he explained that he wanted to turn the clearly unbalanced veteran Kenzo Okuzaki (ominously missing a pinky, which is never explained) into a "action hero" by putting him into situations guaranteed to set him off. Okuzaki believes himself to be an instrument of divine punishment as he attempts to get to the bottom of both the executions of a pair of privates after the war had ended, and the murder and cannibalization of an unpopular officer. In some ways this movie is a fascinating (and weird) look into Japanese society, in which Okuzaki spends ten minutes profusely apologizing to a man he wants to interview for intruding before throwing him to the ground and slapping him for his lack of honesty (which in turn leads to a cringe-inducing but funny moment in which Okuzaki is smothered by the man's neighbors and punched and he turns to the cameras and screams "stop shooting! can't you see I'm being beaten up here?" not much of an action hero anymore). One member of the execution party spends what seems like an eternity changing his stories before admitting to his role in the execution, but claiming he didn't shoot because he had a defective bullet! Some of Okuzaki's targets are quite forthright and honest, others lie in a completely unconvincing manner, some come across as rather pathetic. The main "villain" is the officer who ordered the execution yet denies being present. Yet for all this, there is no commentary, and the reasons given for the executions range from desertion to cannibalization (the sister of one of the executed men is convinced of a vast conspiracy by the officers on New Guinea to keep their cannibalization secret by killing these two privates who would have otherwise spilled the beans), but were probably just another act of brutality in a spectacularly brutal war. Throughout Okuzaki rants and raves and is disarmingly (and bizarrely) forthright about his crimes (shooting BBs at and spreading pornographic pamphlets of Emperor Hirohito, plotting to kill a former Prime Minister, and the actual murder of a real-estate broker in the 50s). He comes across as one-third fanatic, one-third bully, and one-third psychotic, and the conclusion of the film is completely unbelievable, buy wholly in line with what we've seen in the previous two hours. Yet for all of Okuzaki's madness, Hara's skillful manipulation of reality gives the film a veneer of a lone-wolf detective story, as Okuzaki prods and beats the truth (or make that "truth") out of the various broken down veterans he falls upon. Incredible.
Review of The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On
