SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Patrick McCoy It's no surprise that Shoehei Imamura helped with the planning of Kazuo Hara with his documentary film The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987). It is just the kind of documentary that would appeal to Imaura-Hara follows Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WWII veteran notorious for his protests against Emperor Hirohito, as he tries to expose the needless executions of two Japanese soldiers during the war. We learn at the beginning of the film that Okuzaki was imprisoned in Kobe for 13 years and 9 months for plotting to assassinate a former Prime Minister, shooting pachinko balls at the emperor with a sling shot, and distributing pornographic pictures of the Emperor outside a Tokyo department store. He is one of 30 surviving members of a platoon that fought in Papua New Guinea and he is driven to find out why two low ranking soldiers were executed for desertion 23 days after the war ended. Eventually, it comes out that the unpopular low ranking soldiers were executed for cannibalism for the superior officers. Ohuzaki is a piece of work-his sanity is never questioned and he will result to violence to get his answers on camera. These themes of WWII atrocities and anger at those who were in charge are common themes in the documentaries of Imamura as well. Ohkuzaki is aided by his loyal wife and by the end of the film he has gone back to Papua New Guinea to pray for the souls of dead Japanese soldiers, but he film shot there was confiscated by the Indonesia authorities. He decides that he should kill the officer who called for the execution of the two low ranking soldiers, but is unable to kill him tries to kill his son instead. The son survives and Okuzaki goes back to prison for attempted murder, soon after his wife dies. It is a fascinating film that brings up some unpleasant topics that most modern Japanese try to whitewash history-just as these war survivors try to live on as if these things had not happened.

decembernaghi I can't say that watching "The Emperor's Naked Army" was an uplifting experience, or that it made me 'feel good.' Many times during the movie, I was uncomfortable; I was shocked, even disgusted by Okuzaki's behavior… but the documentary was brilliant. It was the utter definition of realism. Even when the protagonist started beating up people on camera, Hara kept filming. The result was somewhat mind-boggling. I mean, even with all his faults, Okuzaki gets results. By the end, I really started to wonder if maybe what he was doing was justifiable. This movie really was educational, though. I've learned about WWII many times in school, but I had no idea cannibalism ever occurred. I could barely believe my own eyes and ears! Never before have I seen something so raw and so real. Even though I hated the violence, I'm happy the world gets to see the truth. I've never seen a documentary like this. Michael Moore's movies are more for entertainment purposes than anything else, for example. But this goes back to what a documentary is really supposed to be. Showing the world the truth.

urlysun I watched this documentary film and it is as real as it can get. I am not against Kenzo for doing what he thinks he had to do. Actually I am proud of him for standing up for the families of the soldiers that were wrongfully killed. Kenzo is definitely not a coward at all. Obviously though he had a lot of anger inside that needed to be released. He goes out there in search for the truth of what actually had happened to some of the soldiers. Basically, he just wanted justice for the soldiers that were killed after the war. The film draws you in deep and makes you ask questions about certain reasons. I understand that Kenzo was frustrated and would get violent against the men that he interviewed, but he was just desperate to get the truth out of them. He wanted to disclose the wrong-doings of these military leaders and whoever else was on top so these criminal acts would not happen again in the future. It was an awareness message to the new generation that planned to join the military forces.

Clara Loedel (clara007) "Emperor's Naked Army Marches On" (yuki yuki shingun) is a documentary that tells the story of Okuzai, a former WWII hostage, who is haunted by the memory of the execution of two fellow Japanese soldiers weeks after the war had ended and sets out to find out the truth on who executed them and their reasons for doing so. The movie starts slow but soon we see how far he goes to try and get the suspects to tell him the truth, resorting to lying and physical violence. The protagonist simply doesn't care how he does it, whether he ends up in jail or if everyone dislikes him, as long as he gets answers, showing that he believes that violence is the means to an end. Director Kazuo Hara goes to great lengths to tell the story and not be involved, turning the viewers and himself into a fly on the wall. This is made clear when he doesn't stop filming when a fearless Okuzai starts beating up an elderly man who has just had surgery. That scene is a perfect example of how real this movie feels, Hara does a great job of not showing us things they way we want them to be but rather the whole truth. "Emperor's Naked Army Marches On" captured my whole and undivided attention from the beginning and I found myself cringing at Okuzai's violence, laughing at his attitude toward the police, shocked at his methods for uncovering the truth, and at times, even rooting for him to get answers for himself and for the murdered soldiers' families. But most importantly, Hara and Okuzai succeeded in showing the viewers another side to the WWII, which would still be a memory in the minds of the soldiers that were in New Guinea, hadn't it been for their persistence in finding the truth.