Not Forgotten

Murata Heihachi, a WWII veteran, runs a small bar with his ailing wife Shizue. Fellow vets, including the still dapper Ito Tamio, convene there for reunions. But their old friend Kijima never shows up for them; he’s still haunted by guilt for abandoning a colleague to bleed to death during the war. Soon, though, a new and immediate threat confronts these elderly men. They discover that an outfit called Utopia is active in their area, swindling old people out of their savings and homes…Shinozaki’s very enjoyable new feature is rich in themes and implications. At one level it’s a film about the trials and tribulations of old age – an urgent issue in Japan, where the population is rapidly ageing. At another, it tries to see why Japan provides such fertile ground for quasi-spiritual cults which demand absolute obedience from their adherents. Equally, it represents Shinozaki’s attempt to understand the thinking and attitudes of survivors from the wartime generation. And on top of everything else, it’s a tribute to several of Japan’s finest veteran character actors, some of whom haven’t been seen in a film for years. Made with a true film lover’s respect for Japanese cinema traditions, Not Forgotten knowingly echoes genre films of the past. But it’s less concerned with paying homage than it is with asking some awkward questions about Japan – as it was then, and as it is now. (Tony Rayns)