This review originally ran July 7, 2021, for the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
For as long as it has resonated within the public consciousness, the concept of Hiroo Onoda has been something of a lightning rod.
Onoda the man, you may recall, was the Japanese soldier who never gave up, remaining one of the last active combatants of the Second World War for another 29 years following his country’s surrender. But when the soldier finally put down his gun, left his Philippines jungle keep and returned to his native land in 1974, he became a cultural figure who represented something different depending on whom you asked.
To the nationalist right, he was a hero – the last man of honor in a world gone to rot. To the poets, he was a kind of holy fool, a modern-day Quixote who looked at the changes foisted on him and said “no thanks.
For as long as it has resonated within the public consciousness, the concept of Hiroo Onoda has been something of a lightning rod.
Onoda the man, you may recall, was the Japanese soldier who never gave up, remaining one of the last active combatants of the Second World War for another 29 years following his country’s surrender. But when the soldier finally put down his gun, left his Philippines jungle keep and returned to his native land in 1974, he became a cultural figure who represented something different depending on whom you asked.
To the nationalist right, he was a hero – the last man of honor in a world gone to rot. To the poets, he was a kind of holy fool, a modern-day Quixote who looked at the changes foisted on him and said “no thanks.
- 10/7/2022
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
"Your body is the Fatherland. Don't let it fall into enemy hands." Dark Star Pictures has revealed the new official US trailer for the film Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle, a French drama about a Japanese solider that originally premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival last year. Based on a true story!! Which is especially crazy when you think about it. Shot in Japanese, this international co-production tells the story of the soldier Hiroo Onoda (played by Endô Yûya) who was sent to an island in the Philippines in 1944, to fight against the American offensive. When "Japan surrenders, Onoda ignores it, trained to survive at all costs in the jungle, he keeps his war going. He will take 10,000 days to capitulate, refusing to believe the end of the Second World War." He ends up spending nearly 30 years there. The film also stars Tsuda Kanji, Matsuura Yūya, Chiba Tetsuya, Katō Shinsuke,...
- 10/5/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Robust, old-fashioned anti-war epic tells the true story of the soldier posted to the Philippines in the second world war, who refused to surrender until 1974
Here is a really well-made, old-fashioned anti-war epic in a forthright and robustly enjoyable style from director and co-writer Arthur Harari. I can imagine David Lean or Steven Spielberg making this, or even John Sturges or J Lee Thompson, and it becoming the kind of movie that would get shown every Christmas on TV. It’s inspired by the life of Japanese intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, who during the second world war had trained as a commando with orders to hold Lubang island in the Philippines and never to surrender or take his own life. Fiercely loyal to these original instructions, and refusing to believe the war was over, he held out as a hermit-guerrilla until 1974, as his ragtag unit died off or surrendered one by one,...
Here is a really well-made, old-fashioned anti-war epic in a forthright and robustly enjoyable style from director and co-writer Arthur Harari. I can imagine David Lean or Steven Spielberg making this, or even John Sturges or J Lee Thompson, and it becoming the kind of movie that would get shown every Christmas on TV. It’s inspired by the life of Japanese intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, who during the second world war had trained as a commando with orders to hold Lubang island in the Philippines and never to surrender or take his own life. Fiercely loyal to these original instructions, and refusing to believe the war was over, he held out as a hermit-guerrilla until 1974, as his ragtag unit died off or surrendered one by one,...
- 4/12/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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