United Red Army

February 10, 2008 Suffused with recollected passions of a bona fide activist, and sober historical hindsight, "United Red Army" transcends its national and historical specificity as an elegy to Seventies idealism, in kindred spirits with Ken Loach's "Land and Freedom" and "The Wind That Shakes the Barley." However, at 190 minutes, it is so fanatically faithful in tracing the roots of Japan's left-wing movement and ensuing fractured radicalism, so unflinching in its re-creation of Orwellian internal purging as well as the power hunger and bloodlust that motivates it, that it is a physical and emotional long haul for any viewer. The film was named best Japanese film at Tokyo International Film Festival.

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