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 S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On" or "Yuki yukite, shingun")

 

Directed by Kazuo Hara
Japan 1987

 

Conceived by Shôhei Imamura, Kazuo Hara's audacious, deeply unsettling documentary feature follows Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran who has fought tirelessly and often violently on a one-man mission to bring to justice Japan's Emperor Hirohito and the Army Commanders who he holds responsible for the countless deaths and other atrocities involving Japanese soldiers at the end of the war in the Pacific.

Harrowing, unflinching and extraordinarily powerful, Hara's film pushes against the proprieties of Japanese society (the film remains unreleased in its home country), and forces us to question the relationship between documentary filmmaker, protagonist and spectator.

***

Though Okuzaki ultimately holds Emperor Hirohito accountable for all the suffering of the war, ("I hate irresponsible people...the most cowardly man in Japan, is the Emperor Hirohito"), he painstakingly tracks down former soldiers and officers, coaxing them into telling him about the deaths, often abusing them verbally and at times physically in the process (at one point, Okuzaki states that "violence is my forte"). The people he talks to give different accounts of what transpired almost 40 years earlier, some saying that those killed were executed for desertion after the war was already over, while others state that they were shot for cannibalizing New Guinea indigenous people.

Excerpt from Wikipedia located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 1987 (Berlin International Film Festival)

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Review: Second Run - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover

CLICK to order from:
Distribution Second Run - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime 2:00:55.456        
Video

1.55:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 46,859,181,748 bytes

Feature: 34,890,706,944 bytes

Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:

Audio

LPCM Audio Japanese 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Second Run

 

1.55:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 46,859,181,748 bytes

Feature: 34,890,706,944 bytes

Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

• A new filmed interview with director Kazuo Hara (27:17)
• Kazuo Hara Masterclass: The Emperor's Naked Army Marches (39:31)
• Booklet featuring new writing on the film


 Blu-ray Release Date: November 11th, 2019
 Transparent Blu-ray Case

Chapters 12

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Second Run Blu-ray (December 2019): Second Run have transferred the unique and fascinating documentary "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On" to Blu-ray. It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate and is cited as coming from a 'new HD re-master and transfer from original materials'. I believe it was originally shot on 16mm and hence the 1080P image shows plenty of heavy grain textures. It clocks in at around the 1.55:1 aspect ratio. The image quality is consistent with clean sources and seems a strong representation of its original appearance.

On their Blu-ray, Second Run use a linear PCM 2.0 channel track (16-bit) in the original Japanese language. This is, likewise, at the mercy of the original production's limitations, but dialogue is clear and consistent and Second Run offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Second Run Blu-ray has a new, 27-minute, filmed interview (by Chihiro Shimano) with director Kazuo Hara who discusses how he got into filmmaking, with his wife's encouragement, from photography and we also get a 40-minute Kazuo Hara Masterclass: The Emperor's Naked Army Marches which details the filmmakers approach to his craft. The package also contains a line notes booklet featuring new writing on the film.

One of the greatest endorsements that I can give is this quote from Errol Morris: "I first saw The Emperor s Naked Army Marches On at the San Francisco Film Festival. Werner Herzog and I were sitting together. We couldn't believe it. Here was one of the weirdest, most dramatic stories ever. And the movie itself? What can I say? It s on my list of the 10 best movies ever". It is a fascinating story - one I was totally unaware of - and it sparked fevered Google-ing to find out more (and more recent) information on Kenzo Okuzaki (who died in 2005.) What a great documentary for Second Run to release on Region FREE on Blu-ray. It's a must-see for those keen on this genre and this less-exposed character study and history of Japan. Watch this!

Gary Tooze

 

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Box Cover

CLICK to order from:
Distribution Second Run - Region FREE - Blu-ray


 


 

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