Every morning at 9 a.m., the garrisons from two towns on opposite sides of a river gather on the banks and start shooting at each other. Nobody remembers what they’re fighting for, but it’s all very civilized. The rival forces even sound an alarm before they commence hostilities.
For the soldiers, it’s just another day of work. As Ichiro Tsuyuki (Kou Maehara) blandly explains to a new recruit: If you get through about 50 bullets in the morning and 80 in the afternoon, you should be fine.
Like the other characters in Akira Ikeda’s “The Blue Danube,” Ichiro gives off the aura of an android in need of a software update. He and his fellow residents march everywhere in single file and speak in affectless tones, oblivious to the way their conversations keep going round in circles.