UNITED RED ARMY
(Jitsuroku rengô sekigun: Asama sansô e no michi)
Japan, 2007, 190 min.
Original version with Portuguese subtitles.
The American occupying force brought their democracy to Japan, encouraging freedom of speech. The universities in particular transformed into hotbeds of resistance. Japan’s students opposed the state and were relentlessly persecuted. At the end of February 1972 Japan was rocked by a 10-day siege of the Asama skiing lodge, during which two policemen died. But the first victims of the militant students weren't representatives of the state power, but their own comrades: before it even came to combat with the police, 14 young people had fallen victim to the fanaticism of the United Red Army. Wakamatsu's film is an earnest attempt to process the shock that the Japanese left experienced at the time, and to grasp the motivation of the militant students.
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Japan, 2007, 190 min.
Original version with Portuguese subtitles.
The American occupying force brought their democracy to Japan, encouraging freedom of speech. The universities in particular transformed into hotbeds of resistance. Japan’s students opposed the state and were relentlessly persecuted. At the end of February 1972 Japan was rocked by a 10-day siege of the Asama skiing lodge, during which two policemen died. But the first victims of the militant students weren't representatives of the state power, but their own comrades: before it even came to combat with the police, 14 young people had fallen victim to the fanaticism of the United Red Army. Wakamatsu's film is an earnest attempt to process the shock that the Japanese left experienced at the time, and to grasp the motivation of the militant students.
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