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It's the summer of 1945, and there is muttering that Japan may lose the war. Gô Katô is invalided out and joins what's left of his family -- his father and a brother have already perished in the struggle and his mother, grandmother and sisters are in a small village. The villagers don't like outsiders, but the son of the mayor, Bunta Sugawara, wants to marry the oldest sister. The trouble is that Gô saw him kill and rape civilians. His sister decides to not go through with the wedding.

Soon their garden is trampled, and the police refuse to investigate. Soon other families are suffering depredations. The mayor and son spread rumors it is the refugees. Finally, the day comes when bad news overwhelms the town. Atomic bombs have fallen on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; eleven sons of the village have been killed in battle; and the mayor's son tries to rape Gô's sister and gets clouted in the head. His horse returns home and the village decides that he has been murdered and they should go and kill them all.

Keisuke Kinoshita wrote and directed this and it is a beautifully shot movie, that is difficult to take seriously at times. People in it act so stupidly. That's how mobs act, he seems to be saying: out of stupidity. However, as difficult as it is for me to watch it, it must have been harder for a contemporary Japanese audience. In prologue and epilogue, he makes it clear that no one will talk about it. It will become a legend, with demons doing all these things. No one will accept responsibility for their actions. No one will ever try to make them. It will just be some evil demon, who came and went, and they're lovely, lovely people.

Two men have returned to a remote area of Japan during the final months of the war. One is the mayor's son, who committed atrocities against Chinese civilians. The other is a man who witnessed those acts, and is now horrified to find that the guy wants to marry his sister. Their family hold no standing in the village, having come there from war-torn Tokyo, and despite the risk of saying no to a powerful family, they turn down the offer. The mayor's son proceeds to wage war on them, attacking their property, spreading rumors, and getting the peasants stirred up against them. Soon there is no decency and order, and the village is at war, just as the country is at war.

The film's message about the dangers of losing sight of reason and basic kindness - and its parallel to Japan's nationalism of course - is a powerful one, though it's a little too blunt at times in its second half. It's a universal message, a point drilled home to me personally by watching the scenes of a mob which had been fed lies by a man who had manipulated them into hatred become impossible to control, then proceed to commit mayhem. Gosh, that seemed familiar.

The film's soundtrack uses the twang of a traditional Ainu jaw harp called the mukkuri to signal trouble brewing, and it was a fantastic choice. The black and white cinematography is stunning as well, with the confrontation scenes on a rural road standing out. I loved how the film touched on the topic of Japanese crimes against Chinese civilians, facing the past instead of dodging it. I also loved the strength of the young woman character Yuri (Mariko Kaga). So much to love! And Kinoshita kept the film to just 83 minutes too. I felt it lost some of its artistry in how heavy-handed it got towards the end, otherwise would have given it an even higher rating.