Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle

This is really an outstanding movie which is not a "war movie" but rather a complex psychological one of what drive us as a person to take a stand when confronted to situations we could not have ever imagined. Of course education, training, the society, family history, the culture of the country in which you were born, all of this will play a major role with regard to the choice(s) that we will take in life. However, as per prior personal experiences and call it maybe "the genetics" these choices will be different for people even having the same cultural background. The life story of lieutenant Onoda is maybe what you could call an "extreme" one which, besides cultural background, was certainly facilitated by his "physical adaptation" allowing him to endure the certain hardships and harrowing experiences he encountered during his many years of isolation.

Onoda is a long movie but its length was necessary not to develop the psychological development of the main character but rather to allow the viewer to "feel" what it must have meant in terms of hardship, endurance and faith the choices that Lieutenant Onoda took to honor his pledge of obedience regardless the validity of the cause he chose to defend.

The fact the movie Onoda was released in full pandemic, of the relatively unknown nature of the real history of lieutenant Onoda and that the film must only be shown in the Japanese language (with subtitles) as an indispensable component of the story will certainly limit its diffusion in theaters. Still this will not hamper the fact that this is cinema of the highest caliber and that Arthur Harari, its French director succeeded in making an admirable movie not to be missed!

The movie's really good. The beginning kinda drags on, despite you perfectly understanding the stakes, but it pays out in the end.

The characters are lovable, the story's not far from what really happened. The picture's great, although slightly blurry sometimes.

Really worth it.

Hiro Onoda is talked of in WW2 history as being the last Japanese soldier to surrender; 29 years after the end of WW2 in 1945 (1946 for total end for Japan) on the Philippine island of Lubang. I often wonder why they chose him as the one who got the most attention, story's and films. This is because he was not the last Japanese soldier of WW2 to surrender.

That particular piece of history belongs to Teruo Nakamura who lived for 30 years in the jungle of Morotai; in the old Dutch East Indies. I found out it was because he was treated disgustingly by the Japanese government of the time in 1974 and, that they did not consider him worthy of Japanese soldier honours. This was because his real name was Attun Palalin and he came from ethnic 'Amis', as a native of Taiwan, which was then called Formosa Island, before World War II became a colony of the Japanese Empire.

They and over a 100 others were found scattered on various islands, still fighting years after the end of the war. The last most recent discovery is of 2 soldiers aged 83 and 86 who were found 60 years after the wars end.

I'm sure that there were probably a good many who were never found and that is a shame the Japanese will have to bear forever. It is good that story's such as this come to light and allow later generations to realize the sheer futility of war. The only negative to this film was it being at least an hour too long (it runs for 2:46 minutes) and, very slow paced and a personal belief that this did not follow his story as written in his daily diary of events.

R. I. P. To all of those brave men, lost souls and survivors and also, to any other nationality soldiers who were left behind and stranded on ex island military bases.

To hell with Russia's Vladimir Putin and his attempt to take back what Russia wrongly stole after WW2. The Ukraine is 'Not Gonna Take It' and a lot of Russian families will once again suffer the wasted loss of loved ones.

Although a little bit long, this is about offering us to share a rather unique and captivating life experience, that of brainwashed Japanese soldiers who only stopped the war 30 years after the capitulation. I appreciated the warm and moist beauty of the jungle and the tropical forest, the change of scenery provided, the sober image which seems authentic and of the period, the "film" aspect and documentary grain. Documentary also as long as there is no lady state. Innocent people go there. The story that is told to us is quite simply captivating and I would not have believed that this anecdote from History, which could be summed up in a few lines, could fit into such a great film. With hindsight, however, I can understand that it does not please some who would fall into boredom; with this film it's a bit all or nothing, you have to succeed in immersing yourself. It is a French film, and as such it must be emphasized that it is a nugget.

The case of Onoda, a WW2 Japanese soldier who carried on fighting for thirty years on the Philippine island of Lubang before being persuaded to give up, was a celebrated case in the mid 1970s, and I was really impressed by this dramatic reconstruction of his life. It's a high quality movie, beautifully filmed, thoughtful, and well played all round, though I also thought it a bit too long at more than 2.5 hours. There are great performances all round and solid direction which almost has a David Lean approach at times (no bad thing), so it's a 'small scale epic' with a heart, and well worth a view. There are some supremely effective moments, and the film deserves a wider audience, though you do have spare quite a bit of time.