Man on a mission? Or, man obsessed? Director Kazua Hara’s absorbing documentary follows former auto mechanic Kenzo Okuzaki—a veteran of Japan’s New Guinea campaign during WWII—as he searches out those responsible for the mysterious deaths of several fellow soldiers in his unit. Okuzaki painstakingly tracks down former military officers and accuses them of specific war crimes, including the wrongful execution of Japanese soldiers. Hara’s subtle cinema verite not only captures the zeal of Okuzaki’s lifelong mission but also exposes the atrocities committed by the Japanese military against its on soldiers. This film created such controversy in Japan upon release that no major distributor would handle it
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