“This island hasn’t known peace since the war ended,” declares police detective Gusuku (Satoshi Tsumabuki), deep into the third hour of “Hero’s Island.” It’s a striking statement given that he’s speaking in 1970 and the war in question ended 25 years earlier. But in Okinawa, it can be hard to move on.
While the postwar Allied occupation of Japan officially finished in 1952, the country’s southernmost prefecture remained under U.S. control for another two decades. That’s the period covered by Keisuke Otomo’s sprawling 191-minute drama, adapted from an even heftier 2018 novel by Junjo Shindo.
At the story’s outset, Gusuku is part of a gang of “senka agiya,” who rob supplies from U.S. military bases and redistribute them, Robin Hood style. During a nighttime raid at Kadena Air Base, they get rumbled by the Americans and the gang’s inspirational leader, On (Eita Nagayama), goes missing in the fray.
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