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Houston1
Reviews
Jitsuroku Rengo Sekigun: Asama sanso e no michi (2007)
No Objection!
The first hour or so of United Red Army sets up the necessary background. It reviews the events of the 1960's in Japan, particularly the student movement against militarism, tuition increases, etc., and features a lot of original news footage and still photographs from the time. The film was clearly done on a small budget and features mostly interior scenes on stage sets, so the television and newspaper clips serve in lieu of any attempt to portray the big events of the day (demonstrations then could include hundreds of thousands of people). Though I'm very familiar with the ideas of the Left, I know little about Japan and found this part engaging.
The second part, which lasts well over an hour, takes places in a remote cabin in the mountains, where members of the URA "revolutionary" student group are hiding out. One after another, they engage in so-called "criticism/ self-criticism" sessions involving the beating, torture, and ultimately killing of fellow members over various political apostasies and trivialities (you didn't clean the gun properly, comrade! you're wearing makeup, comrade!). Sitting and watching these grueling, interminable scenes are, I suppose, a bit like being forced to sit through such a session yourself – so the form of the film at this point corresponds neatly to its content.
The third, final hour details the seizure of a small mountain lodge by the remaining URA militants. The standoff between the URA and the security forces (over 1,500 were mobilized) is never shown from the outside as a whole, and just a few riot police appear during the scene in which the lodge is stormed. This gives the last part of the film an intensely psychological and claustrophobic feel: there are only the five militants, their one hostage, lots of barricaded interiors, no exterior visuals (at best, you just see sky and light), wafting tear gas and smoke, and voices (from the police commanders and some of the students' parents). It is effective and underscores the way in which the "revolutionaries'" commitment was more personal and subjective and less about the reality of the outside world.
This film can be quite nasty, a cross between a historical-realist, political work (like the recent Carlos) and Japanese snuff-horror (Audition, etc.). I'm a history nerd, so I'll recommend it, but you should know what you're in for.