Onoda – 10 000 Nights in the Jungle

The true story of Hiroo Onoda, who joined the Japanese Imperial Army in 1944 at age 22, was transferred to Lubang Island in the Philippines, and went on fighting the war for 30 years after it had ended, has been retooled into an absorbing, often darkly funny, and ultimately very moving drama by rising French filmmaker Arthur Harari. Beginning in 1974, when a young Japanese man went in search of the underground soldier, the film flashes back to Onoda’s training and deployment to the island—and then covers his increasingly hermetic and occasionally paranoid life up until his ‘surrender’… ‘This gripping tale of misguided patriotism recreates a vanished set of circumstances via excellent performances and well-tailored cinematic choices… The story is told in such a way that viewers are in Onoda’s survivalist mindset, which is a fascinating place to be… The incredibly moving third act is full of suspense… This old soldier’s ritualistic devotion to the memory of his fallen comrades subtly highlights the idiocy and brutality of war but Onoda’s stubborn faith in his military hierarchy has a residual beauty all its own.’—Lisa Nesselson, Screen