Wakamatsu Koji's "United Red Army"

[rwdavisjr at ca.rr.com]

I was at the screening too and was, in the end, quite disappointed in the film. Just two comments. At one point in his lengthy summary, Mark writes:

> The meaning of "critique" becomes completely distorted, and  
is eventually used as justification for savage murders. While  
exhausting and at times quite painful to watch, conceptually this is  
one of the most interesting parts of the film.

I felt so too, mid-way through thinking that somehow the film itself might be aiming for a kind of rigorous "self-criticism" of the URA which was, as noted, difficult to watch but perhaps necessary from an ideological pov.

This feeling, however, was dispelled in the final hour when the film launched into sappily elegiac music and cheesy dissolves to (unjustly) executed comrades as some of the more sympathetic characters escaped the group's mountain camp.

Similarly, the most psychologically "dramatic" moment in the lodge is when the 16-year-old, in a fit of tears, tells the others they have all been cowards. This scene, similarly, is pumped up with "meaningful" cuts to fallen comrades. If this is "self-criticism", it turns out to be a very Hollywood one.

Someone else asks:

> how is the acting in these reenactments?

It looks to me like the actors haven't been directed much at all. But I wasn't on set, so ... ... The result is pretty amateurish. You can decide whether this is good or bad in a film like this one.