Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle

Hiroo Onoda is an officer candidate in the Japanese army. Instead of the front he is given special training: guerrilla warfare, staying behind enemy lines, and never surrendering. In 1944 he is sent to the island of Lubang in the Philippines. The war ends in 1945. He does not believe it; he takes the leaflets dropped on the island for enemy propaganda. He stays with three soldiers. Years pass, his companions die one by one, and he remains. Twenty nine years in all. Arthur Harari directs. Two actors play Onoda young and old: Yuya Endo and Kanji Tsuda. The story is real. In 1974, after a young Japanese man searching for him found him on the island, Onoda surrendered only when his former commanding officer came and withdrew the order. The film is a French production shot in Japanese; the director being from outside Japan gives the narrative a distance. The subject is not belief but orders. Onoda is not shown as mad; he carries out the task he was given to the letter, and the film is about what the system did to him. It is long, about three hours, and the choice is deliberate; the viewer is meant to feel time passing. The detail of life on the island takes up considerable room: food, illness, ammunition running down and clashes with villagers. Who it is for: viewers who like historical drama and slow, detailed narrative. Who it is not for: it is very long, repetitive, and the film offers no psychological explanation.