Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old veteran of the New Guinea campaign in World War II, sets out to conduct interviews with survivors and relatives to find the truth behind atrocities committed by Japanese military, in particular the unexplained killing of two Japanese privates in his unit.
Okuzaki's one-man crusade is a singular documentary premise — a volatile, morally complex antihero confronting aging war criminals on camera, blurring the line between investigative journalism and performance. The film's Novelty is genuinely exceptional: no other documentary quite resembles this collision of obsession, confession, and coercion. The Plot earns a 4 because the unfolding investigation genuinely reveals something — the gradual, horrifying confirmation of cannibalism and murder — and the structural tension is sustained throughout. Acting is not strictly applicable but the real-life participants' responses (ranging from denial to breakdown) are compelling and candid; a 3 reflects that the 'performances' are uneven by nature. Cinematography is functional and deliberately raw, appropriate for the subject but not visually distinguished. The Ending is haunting but somewhat abrupt, landing at a 3 — Okuzaki's mission concludes inconclusively, which is thematically honest but unsatisfying as a narrative resolution.