The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)

A documentary following Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran notorious for his protests against Emperor Hirohito, as he tries to expose the needless executions of two Japanese soldiers during the war.

Director:

Kazuo Hara

Stars:

Kenzo Okuzaki, Riichi Aikawa, Masaichi Hamaguchi

9 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Kenzo Okuzaki	...	Self
Riichi Aikawa
Masaichi Hamaguchi
Toshio Hara
Shichiro Kojima
Masao Koshimizu
Taro Maruyama
Toshiya Nomura
Shizumi Okuzaki
Eizaburo Oshima
Rinko Sakimoto
Yukio Seo
Iseko Shimamoto
Minoru Takami
Kichitaro Yamada

Storyline

This documentary was five years in the making, and revolves around 62-year-old Okuzaki Kenzo, a survivor of the battlefields of New Guinea in World War II who gained notoriety by slingshooting steel pinballs at Emperor Showa to protest against what he considered to be the ruler's war crimes. Setting out to conduct interviews with survivors and relatives, he finds the truth of the past to be elusive, achieving a breakthrough only when he confronts ex-Sergeant Yamada, who grudgingly admits the occurrence and instructional source of certain atrocities.

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Plot Keywords:

japanese soldier | japanese | japanese emperor | japanese man | emperor | 

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Genres:

Documentary | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

American documentary filmmaker Erroll Morris listed this film as one of the top ten non fiction movies.

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Connections

Referenced in Century of Cinema: 100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1995)

User Reviews

An amazing documentary..

The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On was one of the most amazing documentaries I've ever watched. Okuzaki and his wife endured so much over the 5 years, so much pain and emotional suffering to track down the truth. To search for the truth behind what really happened to the soldiers that were in Okuzaki's unit relied on so much of their passion and commitment..I really admire that. Okuzaki along with Kazuo - the amazing director behind this film track down officers one by one...using whatever/appearing however necessary to get within the walls of questioning...completely deceiving most of the time. Each officer who was under Hirohito's power was to explain how the two soldiers died...any form of resistance resulted in abuse verbally and even physically. When the cause was mentioned and when I discovered how the bodies were processed - - I was like ugh!! Who does that?? And the most amazing yet bothersome conclusion I came to in of all this is that I just absorbed Okuzaki's true life experience...a very harsh, painsaking true realism.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

15 May 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On

Filming Locations:

Fukaya, Saitama, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$222,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Imamura Productions, Shisso Production, Zanzou-sha

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color