ARMY (RIKUGUN)
(director: Keisuke Kinoshita; screenwriters: story by Shohei Hino, Tadeo Ikeda; cinematographer: Yoshio Taketomi; cast: Chisu Ryu (Tomosuke Takagi), Ken Metsude (Tomonojo, Son), Kazumasa Hoshino (Shintaro, son), Kinuyo Tanaka (Waka), Ken Uehara (Nishina), Haruko Sugimura (Setsu); Runtime: 87; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Ken’ichiro Yasuda; Criterion Eclipse; 1944-in B/W-Japan-in Japanese with English subtitles)
“WWII drama on military servitude and dying in glory for the Emperor.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Japanese director Keisuke Kinoshita’s (“The Ballad of Narayama”/”Twenty-four Eyes”) WWII drama on military servitude and dying in glory for the Emperor. It’s based on a story by Shohei Hino and is scripted by Tadeo Ikeda.
It’s a propaganda pro-war Japanese WWII drama, filmed in occupied Manchuria, that signals Japanese families have bought into wanting their sons to fight in the military to win the war and do not fear dying.
The film follows three generations of a family from the mid-19th Century to World War II, about 80 years, as they all wish to serve their country in the army.
Battles are not followed, instead from 1860 on the history of a gung-ho patriotic family is followed. Whereby a pawnbroker’s family-the father, Tomosuke Takagi (Chisu Ryu), the mother Waka (Kinuyo Tanaka) and their ill son, Shintaro (Kazumasa Hoshino), at first treasure a Japanese history book given them as the Shogunate falls. Since the father was too ill to serve in the front, he wants his son to bring honor to the family by fighting in combat. But he’s also too ill.
In 1885, Japan attacked China in Korea and China withdrew its influence in Korea. They gained Taiwan and the Liaodung Peninsula, but Russia, Germany and France forced the Emperor to return the Peninsula, which then was possessed by Russia.
In 1905 Japan is at war with Russia. The son is an Army captain, but regrets that he’s too ill to fight on the front. He is married and with a son.
A decade passes and Japan attacks China. The son is a PFC, who marches off to WWII in front of a cheering parade crowd (this takes place before Pearl Harbor).
The Japanese psyche is that the family’s sons belong to the Emperor. The brainwashed people are always reminded of the Imperial Prescript– Loyalty, Manners, Valor, Honor, Frugality.
In the film’s controversial silent ten minute last scene, written by Kinoshita, the mother (Kinuyo Tanaka) in a gesture of love for her son rushes to the parade grounds before her boy is sent to the front, to have one last look at him. The Japanese people back home gripe that it derides the nobility of war, the Japanese movie censors are irked it reflects badly on war effort, and the Army goes ballistic that this scene sent an anti-war message. Kinoshita was rebuked for not toeing the ‘War is Good line.’ But this scene was the best feature in the movie, the only one that had any true humanity and artistic value.
REVIEWED ON 7/10/2024 GRADE: B-