Yuki Yukite Shingun
Japan,
1987, 123 min
Shown in 1988
CREDITS
- dir
-
Kazuo Hara
- prod
-
Sachiko Kobayashi
- cam
-
Kazuo Hara
- source
-
Daguerro Press, Inc.
OTHER
A brave and radical documentary, this film is about Kenzo Okuzaki, a man who cannot and will not forget the Pacific War and what happened to soldiers there. In particular, he wants to find out what happened to several young privates who were executed by the Japanese Army after the war was over. He does so by going around interviewing survivors, including those who were on the firing squad and those who gave the orders. The film is fascinating because the man is a champion for right and he is, at the same time, so given to violence that our own moral position is questioned, as viewers. Most shocking to modern sensibilities is the revelation for the reasons for execution. Starving higher officers were executing privates and other low ranks on trumped up charges in order that they could be served at table. The Emperor's Naked Army is extremely moving and in the end deeply upsetting. The picture is beautifully made, a truly controlled example of honest documentary at its best.
—Donald Richie
FACTOID #49
Some of the filmmakers whose works screened in our New Directors series include Cinda Firestone, Susan Sontag, Shu Shuen, Conrad Rooks, Shirley Clarke, Sandro Franchina, and Mitsuo Yanagimachi. This series, which began in 1965, was a predecessor to the New Directors series at Lincoln Center, which started in 1971.
