Movielogr
United Red Army (2007)
Directed by Kōji Wakamatsu
Twitter Facebook Google+Most recently watched by sleestakk
Overview
The film is told in three acts, beginning with a historical background of Japan’s student movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, mostly using archive footage and a narrator. The second act follows the formation of the group to their mountain training camps in the southern Japanese Alps. It emphasizes the dogmatic (and eventually hypocritical) bullying of the group by Mori and Nagata, with 12 members being killed for infractions as small as improperly cleaning a gun, wearing make-up, and kissing. The third act shows the splitting up of the group after two members run off. It follows one group of five members to Karuizawa and a hostage-taking and police standoff known as the Asama-Sansō incident.
Length 190 minutes
Actors
Maki Sakai | Arata Iura | Akie Namiki | Go Jibiki | Shima Ohnishi | Keigo Kasuya | Akiko Monô | Yuki Fujii | Kaoru Okunuki | Tak Sakaguchi | Yugo Saso | Hideo Nakaizumi | Maria Abe | Tomori Abe | Anri Ban | Yoshio Harada | Erika Okuda | Nao Okabe | Kenji Date | Megumi Ichinose | Shinji Miyadai | Hassei Takano | Nobuya Tamaichi | Soran Tamoto | Kazuki Tsujimoto | Takaki Uda | Naoki Yamamoto
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/15/2012 | TV | DVD | Library | 7 stars |
| (Average) 7 stars |
Viewing Notes
Almost unbearably long, and at times intensely difficult to watch, this is nonetheless a pretty gripping story once you get past the first third which is more of a documentary.
My biggest complaint would be that the production design, costuming and makeup don’t really evoke the time period in a convincing way.
Still, that’s swept aside during the final third of the movie, which is excruciatingly disturbing and really draws you in.
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