Not Forgotten

[Robin Gatto]

Dear Kinejapaners,

I can't say I agree with Tom and Jasper about Not Forgotten, and it would be
interesting to further discuss that film.
I had the feeling watching Not Forgotten that Makoto Shinozaki wasn't quite
sure what he was aiming at. A film about war veterans? A denunciation of the
brainwashing performed by cult-like organizations like the powerful Sokka
Gakkai? The film is a mishmash of diverging elements with an ambiguous
ending that left me quite unsatisfied. I felt the message of the film was:
"There are still wars to wage in Japan, no longer against evil outer forces,
but against the evils that are undermining nowadays society" The message is
beautiful, but the film proves that such mottoes cannot be easily made into
films. Maybe such endeavours should be left in the hands of directors like
Paul Verhoeven and Kinji Fukasaku.
Apart from that, Tomio Aoki is a delight in that film, and let's recall that
he got Best Actor Award at the 2000 Nantes Film Festival in France. He was
on stage to receive his trophy and proved that he still had quite a lot of
spirit left in him.

Robin