Yuki Yukite shingun
I've got to say I love movies and books about holy troublemakers. Give me a person who causes trouble and attempts to turn the world upside down and I'm an admirer.
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On is about Kenzo Okuzai, a former WWII soldier who was stationed in New Guinea in the war.
Talk about pissed and righteous. Basically, he's a one man guilt machine. And he sees it as his divine purpose to go around and let his fellow comrades in the war understand their evil. He declares that nation, family, etc are all against divine law because we use them to separate us from people. He even talks to an old friend dying in a hospitalization and says, "Of course you must die this way. The divine law will not allow you to die peacefully because of all the atrocities we did in New Guinea." Wow! I wonder if we Christians could link cancers to certain sins if we would have the nerve to tell the sufferer it's caused by some sin. I mean, Kenzo offers no excuse, no place for anyone -- especially the emperor-- to hide from sin. He gets arrested for driving his guiltmobile through town with slogans all over it.
He's especially pissed at Sargeant Yamada who it appears was totally evil to his own soldiers and to enemy.
Then there's the mystery of what exactly happened to Private Yoshizawa. Was he murdered (and by who) and cannibalized because he was against the cannibalization his fellow soldiers had to practice because they were starving? What is the cover-up? His sister says God has told her her brother was killed because he was honorable. (I know many Chinese and Japanese folks supposedly don't believe in a Creator God but honestly, I've seen so many Asian movies that I'm totally convinced they do. In small gods, and in divine law or God.)
The weird thing is how folks react to him. The reserved Japanese cops are very calm when he speaks over his loudspeaker --while they're trying to arrest him-- that they work for money and not for divine law. The Japanese reserve is pretty strong and even when our hero -- who has serious post-traumatic issues but that really doesn't matter-- even attacks them physically in their houses. Yamada is tough but you kinda see his sneer crumbling. The spiritual folks accept their guilt and trust to divine law for mercy.
What a great documentary! I totally loved it. I love guys like this. We really don't have any Christian spiritual person like this in the west who makes himself/herself hated for the sake of some divine purpose. I mean even if you have someone in the US who is anti-abortion or something, that person would be pro-war. Totally fun! IF you like holy troublemakers who try to turn the world upside down: this is the film.
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