World War II-themed films by elderly Japanese directors with direct experience of the war are not only becoming scarcer, but are also distinctly different from those of younger filmmakers trying to appeal to a mass audience. Kazuo Kuroki's 2006 film "Kamiya Etsuko no Seishun (The Blossoming of Kamiya Etsuko)," Kaneto Shindo's "Ichimai no Hagaki (Postcard)" from 2010, and Koji Wakamatsu's "Caterpillar" released the same year, are all passionate testaments to the official crimes and human tragedies of a rapidly receding era.
Born in 1936, Shoichiro Sasaki belongs to the younger end of this group. Also, instead of laboring in the vineyards of indie filmmaking like Kuroki, Shindo and Wakamatsu, Sasaki had a long and successful career with public broadcaster NHK, winning foreign and domestic awards for his dramas.
Returning to the director's chair for the first time in nearly two decades, Sasaki has made what may be his swan song: "Minyon Baion no Hosoku (Harmonics Minyoung)." The film is as nonmainstream as any of the titles mentioned above and also, like them, a personal film, if one with a larger ambition than presenting the director's autobiography.