After nearly twenty years, this movie still haunts me. I remember only a few flickering black and white scenes, but wow, to this day, tears well up in my eyes when I think about it.
I saw it as a historical curiosity, having no expectations for it as a cinematic experience. It is a propaganda film with lots of stilted "party line" dialogue the audience laughed over, myself included.
Little did I suspect that the last 5 minutes of this "joke" of a movie would leave me drained and in tears. The actress who played the mother(Sugimura Haruko, I salute you) reached across time and space and pulled me into the private and secret world of her character. And it was a place I had never been before. What more can you expect of a movie?
To put this kind of ending on a movie called "Army" in 1944 took a lot of courage and decency. Thank you, Kinoshita Keisuke.
If the opportunity comes your way to see this movie, I urge you to see it.