(Movie Review)As I mentioned in my review of “69”, the Japanese Red Army, a wacko splinter group, is a favorite subject for Japanese film makers, while, unfortunately, the broad based student movement which it grew out of receives little to no attention.
The Japanese Red Army may be a nominally leftist group, but really they were so far removed from reality that political labels are meaningless. What else can you say about a group of students who, while hiding out in the mountains, began holding nightly purges until 14 members had been killed off?
Then, in 1972 the surviving members took over a lodge resort on Asama Mountain and held hostages in the infamous “Asama Mountain Lodge Incident”. The resulting standoff with the police was broadcast live on Japanese TV for several days and in Japan it remains one of the images that defined the era.
Several movies and TV specials have been made about the “Asama Mountain Lodge Incident” over the years. A few years ago I rented and watched 雨の光 (Ame no Hikari) which I quite enjoyed. It was an attempt to try and explain how these normal middle class students could end up doing such a horrible thing. The concept was done as a film within a film. The director would shoot a scene about the red army purges in the mountains, and then the actors would discuss why their characters would do such a thing. It was a unique approach, but perhaps the only way a story as bizarre as this could be done justice on the big screen. (A good review of that movie is here).
“The Choice of Hercules” came out a few years ago, and although I’ve been aware of it for a long time, I have avoided watching it because:
1) There’s only so many films on the “Asama Mountain Lodge Incident” a man can watch and…
2) This movie was from the perspective of the police, so it didn’t seem like my kind of movie.
But last week, when the topic came up in class, one of my students told me that this was his favorite movie. And then when he went onto say that the DVD version came complete with English subtitles, I was sold.
I thought this would be just another “Asama Mountain Lodge Incident” exploitation movie, but this is actually a very interesting story. It is based on a book by one of the head police officials at the incident, and it details the absolute chaos in the police ranks that went on behind the scenes.
As it turns out, behind the scenes of the television cameras, there was an ongoing turf war between the Nagano Prefectural police and central Tokyo police. Also because of special promotions made to deal with this incident, even within the Tokyo police the chain of command wasn’t clear.
And there was just one screw up after another. To give just one example:
Near the end, they conceive the idea of using a wrecking ball and a crane to knock the roof off the lodge, and expose the Red Army. Since none of the police could work the wrecking ball, there was a debate about whether or not they could use someone from the wrecking crew. They finally compromised by agreeing that he could do it if he wore a police uniform during the operation, but then fierce arguments broke out whether he would wear a Tokyo uniform or a Nagano uniform. Then the power lines, which were supposed to be cut because they were in the way of the wrecking ball, were left standing because of a miscommunication. Then because the crane and wrecking ball were used at the same time as the police water cannon, the engine got flooded and the battery died.
Even during the final rescue operation as the police squads swarmed into the mountain lodge, the police were still shouting at each other and even physically fighting with one another.
All this may sound like a comedy, but it’s played seriously in this movie. It’s done as a historical suspense movie, kind of like “Apollo 11”. Even though you know what the end is going to be, you still wonder how they are going to get out of this next mess.
The Red Army members themselves are just faceless gun barrels shooting at the police for the entire film. There is one scene when the mother of one Red Army member is brought to try and talk reason into her son, and that is a poignant scene, but other than that no historical context is given, nor any mention of the Red Army purges which preceded the hostage crisis. (In real life, the frozen bodies of the purged Red Army members were not discovered until after the hostage crisis was over.)
Not having read the memoirs on which this movie is based, I’m not sure how much of this movie is factual, and how much is Hollywoodized (or whatever the Japanese equivalent of Hollywood is). However there was at least one minor detail I noticed because of another book I read. According to the book "Blood and Rage: The Story of the Japanese Red Army " by William Farrell, the lodge owner was killed when he snuck through police lines and tried to negotiate with the Red Army himself. This incident is still in the movie, but in a slightly altered form. Instead of the lodge owner, it is a random civilian who sneaks through police lines and is killed by the Red Army. I assume this was done to give the movie a happier ending, and allow the lodge owner to be re-united with this wife after she was rescued from the Red Army by the police.
Also-another review of this movie is here for those interested.
Useless Wikipedia Fact
The following is the will of Joe Hill:
His will, which was eventually set to music by Ethel Raim, read:
My will is easy to decide,
For there is nothing to divide,
My kin don't need to fuss and moan-
"Moss does not cling to a rolling stone."
My body? Ah, If I could choose,
I would to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.
Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my last and final will,
Good luck to all of you, Joe Hill
Link of the day
ACTIVATE, a local Grand Rapids antiwar group, has signed on to a "call to action" circulated by various chapters of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) that calls for a national day of "student and youth resistance" to the Iraq. As an affiliate of SDS, ACTIVATE became the 44th group around the country to endorse the call to action. ACTIVATE had previously signed on to a call to action being circulated around the country calling for "Days of Resistance" to the war on March 19th and March 20th. Plans have not yet been announced by the group for March 20th. However, the group has announced plans for an antiwar march on March 17. People will meet at the corner of East Beltline and Burton at 12:30pm. In addition, ACTIVATE is also planning a protest at Senator Debbie Stabenow's office on March 14 due to her continued votes funding the occupation of Iraq.
(Complete article Here)
The Choice of Hercules (Asama Sanso Lodge Incident): Movie Review (Scripted)
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