Not Forgotten

Swing low, sweet chariot... The central characters in this highly engaging film are elderly men, former soldiers in the Pacific War, one of whom is still haunted by guilt for abandoning a wounded colleague to die. But what starts as a study of the problems faced by Japan's rapidly ageing population turns into something very different when the 'religious' cult Utopia turns up and starts swindling old people out of their savings and homes. Suddenly these veterans on the cusp of death are confronted with a new and very contemporary threat; they are goaded into action one last time. Ex-critic Shinozaki casts some of Japan's finest character actors (in some cases, unseen in movies for years) and consciously echoes genre movies of the past in crafting a story balanced between pathos and anger, nostalgia and innovation.