• 木の上の軍隊 (Army on a Tree)

7/7/25 (Mon)

Two soldiers in wartime Okinawa remain hiding in a tree Onoda-like for two years after the war without knowing that the hostilities have ended – the setting would seem ridiculous if it weren’t based on a true story. Okinawa-born Taira Kazuhiro’s film is adapted from a highly regarded stage play that the prolific Inoue Hisashi had been preparing to write at his death (only the title, copious notes, and reportedly two lines of dialogue remained). Having learned about the story in a newspaper article, Inoue had been working on it since 1985 and had finally scheduled a production in 2010, but passed away just three months before the show was to debut. Veteran Kuriyama Tamiya was tapped to take over the script, and the production, staged by Inoue’s troupe Komatsu-za, was finally staged in 2013. It has taken yet another dozen years for that to reach the screen.

It helps to know that Okinawans experienced a significantly different war than the rest of Japan, a brutal campaign in which their unspeakably callous treatment by mainland Japanese made them wonder which side was the real enemy. The Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa, do not share the same history and culture as the rest of Japan, analogous to Hawaii vs. the continental US, and there is a strong sense that they were essentially fed to the wolves, as amply recorded in museums in the prefecture. The film was significantly expanded from the three-character stage show.

The setting is a small island off of Okinawa in early 1945. Amid a sudden bombing by the Americans on a tiny village, a stern officer from Kyushu and a young recruit, an unsophisticated local farmer, take refuge in a massive banyan tree whose sprawling leaves provide camouflage. As the dead bodies pile up, the officer decides that they should remain hidden until reinforcements arrive.

The days go on, and they sneak down at night to take sustenance from dead bodies or leftover supplies. The enemy has set up a camp nearby, making them particularly cautious. They gradually warm to each other, their conversation highlighting the rigid views of the officer, who is driven to defeat the enemy and bring glory to Japan, and the innocent boy, who wants only to go home.

One day, after they have held out for what seems an eternity – it is in fact 1947 – they discover a note from an Okinawan telling them to their shock that they have been spotted and that the war has been over for nearly two years. The officer suspects that it’s a trick, but the boy becomes emotional and, for the first time, defies his superior and insists on giving up. Tellingly, the officer learns only at this point the boy’s first name. The officer ultimately accepts that the note is genuine and that they have been fighting mere shadows.

The opening attack by the Americans is exceptionally well done, the deaths portrayed without fanfare or excessive drama. While there are the usual explosions and mayhem, the end for most comes quickly, unexpectedly and arbitrarily, with gunshots hitting whoever happens to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time. It is a chillingly tense sequence. The film makes no judgment on the killings, simply showing them in all their absurd randomness. It does not go into the responsibility for the war or attempt to demonize either side; its purpose is to show up the futility of war itself, especially when it became clear that the game was up.

The sequences up and around the tree and some smart dialogue manage to offer enough variety to keep things interesting in that tight space. The subtitles can’t fully reflect the difference between the officer’s gruff talk and the soldier’s unfailingly respectful language, which offer a good insight into their relationship and characters. The officer’s uncompromising sense of pride and responsibility despite their hopeless situation is supposed to symbolize Japan, while the boy’s more natural desire simply to go on living represents Okinawa’s situation in its tragic wartime experience. I could have done without the boy’s mawkish flashbacks and dream sequences, though they do lead to a truly beautiful hallucinatory final moment. The early scenes in the village, though convincingly depicted, seemed unnecessary, especially those involving the boy’s doomed childhood friend, which would have been better imagined than pictured. I suspect that the play handles this better. The film’s strongest moments, along with the impressive attack scene, are the simple conversations around the tree that make this a potent character study.

Yamada Yuki is outstanding as the wide-eyed Okinawan boy who’s not sure why he’s at war. His heartfelt breakdown at the end was especially memorable. Veteran Tsutsumi Shinichi, dealing with a somewhat stereotypical uptight representative of authority, does well in a more limited range.

One thing that needs to change is the terrible English title; at the very least, it would have been better rendered as “Soldiers Up a Tree”. I hope they take care of that before any overseas release. My 92-year-old Japanese companion, who was 12 when the war ended, said interestingly that the film was clearly directed by someone who hadn’t experienced the war. I think he was expecting something grimier and darker, especially given the particular horrors of the Okinawan battlefront, but this theater-of-the-absurd piece isn’t that movie.

The stage show was part of a trilogy envisioned by Inoue examining survivors of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa. He only completed the first, Living With Father (aka The Face of Jizo), leaving this one and the final piece, Nagasaki-based Living With Mother, to be adapted by others. The movie version of Mother was directed by now-94-year-old Yamada Yoji, one of a dwindling band of filmmakers who would have experienced the war (Taira is 36), so that might make a good comparison.

I suspect that this works better on stage, where the focus would be on the two men. The Beckett-like setup (down to the Godot-adjacent tree) would eliminate the visual distractions and unneeded background, highlighting the ludicrous of their situation as well as the Japan-Okinawa perception gap. But the performances and dialogue, especially once the tree sequences get going, elevate the film considerably. Recommended.