Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.
Tatsuya Mori's documentary stands out for its deeply unusual access and perspective — embedding inside Aum Shinrikyo in the immediate aftermath of the Tokyo subway sarin attack rather than sensationalizing the cult from outside. The focus on Araki as an almost sympathetic figure navigating public hostility is a genuinely distinctive and unsettling humanizing choice that few documentarians would attempt. The fly-on-the-wall observational style is patient and effective, and the cinematography is functional but unremarkable for the genre. The film's structure is largely episodic rather than dramatically shaped, which dilutes momentum, and the coda ending feels somewhat inconclusive rather than resonant. Acting is not applicable in the traditional sense but subject presence is authentic.