Most serious documentaries made in Japan, especially for television, follow a basic just-the-facts format. A presenter or narrator and various talking heads explain and interpret what we are seeing, from beauty shots of tourist spots to footage grabbed on the run in a war zone. Meanwhile, in the background, the director or other staff members have been diligently gathering and sifting through information.
In his three feature documentaries to date — 2007's "Senkyo (Campaign)," 2008's "Seishin (Mental)" and his new "Peace Pisu (Peace)" — Kazuhiro Soda has taken a different path, filming as an open-minded observer, with no agenda beyond capturing the truth of the moment. Rather than grill his subjects, investigative-journalist style, he asks conversational questions that gently probe rather than challenge, while he sits discreetly off-camera.
Also, instead of an hour with the lights on and various handlers present, he often spends weeks, months or, in the case of the elderly couple at the center of "Peace," years with his subjects. In fact, the couple are his in-laws, though he gives no indication of the relationship in the film.