Rikugun (1944) Online

I was particularly moved by this film. Although I lived in Japan off and on for much of my adult life, I have had few chances to see anything of the wartime mentality of the Japanese, as this part of recent history has been forgotten or just revised. As one friend of mine once put it, wartime Japan was like North Korea today. People subjugated their own lives as well as the lives of their own children for their country and for the emperor, and found meaning in their lives by doing so. This is shown full face in this film. It is a closed view of the world, amplified by the belief that foreign powers are trying to destroy you and that only your own resilience and the grace of a god-like ruler provide a way forward. To watch these sincere young men being fed into this war machine and knowing the destruction they would wreak, as well as the devastation they would themselves suffer is hard to watch. Many of the generation that followed despised the emperor and everything he stood for, something I often heard expressed by my college host family and by my university professor who refused to stand for the Japan national anthem. There is also a strong strain of nationalism that still views Japan as a victim, and you can see some of the history of this as well.

It is also a rather odd film. Sponsored by the Japanese military at the time, it nevertheless feels like an anti-war film. The patriotism and the fervor expressed throughout the film always appear somewhat foolish, and the fealty to the emperor somewhat rote. The final scene (apparently censored by the military) is simply devastating in the way it shows a mother's emotions and fear trying to come to grips with the pride she is supposed to feel at her son marching off to war.

"Army" is fascinating in its historical context, poignant in its human emotions, and thoughtful in how it threads such a fine line between expressions of patriotism and individuality.

After nearly twenty years, this movie still haunts me. I remember only a few flickering black and white scenes, but wow, to this day, tears well up in my eyes when I think about it.

I saw it as a historical curiosity, having no expectations for it as a cinematic experience. It is a propaganda film with lots of stilted "party line" dialogue the audience laughed over, myself included.

Little did I suspect that the last 5 minutes of this "joke" of a movie would leave me drained and in tears. The actress who played the mother(Sugimura Haruko, I salute you) reached across time and space and pulled me into the private and secret world of her character. And it was a place I had never been before. What more can you expect of a movie?

To put this kind of ending on a movie called "Army" in 1944 took a lot of courage and decency. Thank you, Kinoshita Keisuke.

If the opportunity comes your way to see this movie, I urge you to see it.

The Japanese film "Rikugun" (The Army) was produced by the Japanese army during the World War II. As a propaganda film, this film must have been pro-army, pro-war. However, a young director Keisuke Kinoshita tried to include an anti-war message in the film despite of censorship. The mother (played by Kinuyo Tanaka) was trying to find his son in army marching in the last scene. It lasts 7, 8 minutes and the film ends with her close-up. The scene is overwhelming. The film was not appreciated by the army and Kinoshita could not direct the next film at the time. He directed the next film after WWII. The films is not great, but very important. Recently, "Dawn of a Filmmaker: The Keisuke Kinoshita Story" was released in Japan. We see how he comes back to direct films. We also see the last scene of "Rikugun" in this biographic film.

Director Keisuke Kinoshita had to 'toe the line' in the film. Sponsored by the Imperial Japanese Army (I.J.A.), nothing but honor and respect were to be shown to that service. The failure to do your duty to the Emperor and State was inexcusable. The word 'coward' is liberally thrown around at any sign of acting less then a man, any sign of weakness.

The story covers three (3) generations of a Japanese Family and its contributions too the war effort. Starting with the First Sino-Japanese War (1894>1895), Russo-Japanese War (1904>1905) finally the commitment in 1937 to the 2nd Sino-Japanese War which evolved/merged into World War II in 1939. The prelude to the story set in 1944 illustrates this, Japan is being pressed by the Navies of the 'Western Powers'. Japan is always portrayed as a victim. Either not getting its fair share of the spoils of war, nor the proper respect as a player for Empire.

The film ends with the I.J.A. marching off to defend the Empire from the alleged aggression of the Chinese. The Mother runs after Her Son, desiring a last farewell. Is She distraught of His leaving or proud He is finally living up to His duty? With no dialogue save for martial music playing it is left up to the viewer. Though it did not please all those in the I.J.A. it skirted the issue enough to pass the censors.

ARMY (RIKUGUN). Viewed on Streaming. Director Keisuke Kinoshita's military-fantasy tale of a widow who raises her sickly only son to be strong enough to join the army and fight on the front lines, and is supposedly looking forward to his battle death. Chishû Ryû leads a solid cast of studio contract actors who underplay line readings and clearly look uncomfortable (and come across as phony and boring when you can make them out through the gloom--see below) spouting military propaganda mumbo jumbo. Perhaps the "best" part are glimpses of what Kyoto looked like during this time (the city was not bombed). Cinematography (narrow screen, dark grey and white) includes some great tracking shots. The film is terribly faded plus interior/exterior lighting seems to be MIA (missing in action). Interiors look like they were shot during blackouts! The only clear exterior shots are those of military parades with lots of civilian flag waiving (standard stuff probably provided by the military?). Japanese mothers are uniformly depicted as being proud to send their sons into battle, and not at all upset about it. But the closing scene (which seems to have escaped military censorship) graphically shows this to be an outright lie. It is what it is. Only for the curious. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD. Details: steaming (FilmStruck) = 7/8 stars; cinematography = 6/7 stars; direction = 5 stars; performances = 5 stars; print = 3 stars; script = 2 stars; interior/exterior lighting = 1/2 stars.

Although presumably intended to inspire a nation already headed for defeat in World War II (at least those Japanese able to recognize reality knew this), "Army" is actually an excellent piece of movie-making; despite the simple, almost obviously cheap sets, the dialogue is crisp, and the characters appealing and fascinating.

The woman playing Waka, the wife of Mr. Takagi, is an exceptional actress, and her ability to move convincingly between joy and sadness, fear and obsequiousness, are quite impressive.

The context of the film cannot be overlooked. We now know that the training of Japanese soldiers during and before the war was brutal and sadistic, and the result was the creation of an army of men that shamed those who failed to live up to the ideals of total sacrifice, and made the word "surrender" unspeakable - and led directly to the scorn and cruelty of the Japanese over those allied soldiers who surrendered to them.

This rigid code permeates the film, and characters are continuously willing to end friendships based on the perceived failures of others to live up to the ideals. I lost track of how often characters call each other "idiots" for daring to speak any ideas that would be less manly than what Attila the Hun might approve.

The irony lost on the filmmakers was that despite their need to portray all things Japanese as superior to all things Western, the images they capture cannot help but demonstrate how western ideas and fashions had already become part of Japanese society: the commercial architecture is very American, and in the crowd scenes many men are wearing suits; straw hats, which may have been more in style in America in the roaring 20's, also appear to have been popular.

Two scenes stand out for their genuine beauty, both towards the end of the film: first, the scene in which Mr. Sakuragi is accepted by his two friends as genuine "war buddies" is quite touching; and more subtly, the domestic scene of Mr. Takagi's family eating dinner together one last time before his son Shintaro goes off to war is particularly charming in a lovely and quiet way.

A film well worth your time.

During WWII, Hollywood produced a ton of propaganda films that showed the US military in the best possible light. By and large, the films were built around themes involving individual heroism. In contrast, the Japanese propaganda film "Army" is all about the unimportance of the individual and the importance of undying obedience.

The film is quite obvious in the lessons it's trying to instill in the audience--more obvious than the American version. In fact, this film even lists, several times, the important lessons all soldiers must know. All this is wrapped around a multi-generational story that follows a family from the tumult of the Meiji era through the wars of the late 19th and early 20th century and ultimately to WWII. It also clearly explains the reasons for these wars from the Japanese perspective...but it manages to do it very well and with many wonderful vignettes of this family.

All in all, a very high quality film that is worth seeing so you can gain insight into the psyche of Japan circa 1944. Well made, if obvious.