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<\/p>\n\n\tShinya Tsukamoto, the iconoclastic Japanese filmmaker best known for the body-horror landmark Tetsuo: The Iron Man, has set a Japan release for his latest feature, Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?, an English-language drama based on the true story of an African American Vietnam War veteran who became a peace activist with deep ties to Japan. The film is scheduled to open in Japanese theaters in September, setting up a potential Venice Film Festival launch.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe project marks a significant departure for Tsukamoto, who wrote, directed, shot and edited the film \u2014 his first primarily English-language feature \u2014 across locations in the United States, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. Broadway veteran Rodney Hicks, an original and closing cast member of Rent, takes his first major screen lead as Allen Nelson, while Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winner Geoffrey Rush plays Dr. Daniels, a Veterans Affairs physician who intervenes in Nelson\u2019s downward spiral. Tatyana Ali (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) plays Nelson\u2019s wife Linda, and newcomer Mark Merphy appears in flashbacks as the young Nelson.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe film is rooted in the nonfiction account of Nelson, who grew up in New York and enlisted in the Marine Corps at 18, seeking an escape from poverty and discrimination. After training at Camp Hansen in Okinawa, he was deployed to Vietnam in 1966, where he participated in village raids that targeted men, women and children as suspected Viet Cong. He returned home severely traumatized, and spent years homeless before finding treatment through the VA. Nelson went on to devote his life to anti-war advocacy, returning to Okinawa in 1996 and ultimately delivering more than 1,200 lectures at schools and community halls across Japan. He died in 2009 and is buried in the country.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tShinya Tsukamoto working behind the scenes on \u2018Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?\u2019<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKino Films<\/p>\n
\n\tMr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? completes what Tsukamoto has described as an informal trilogy of 20th-century war films. Fires on the Plain (2014), his adaptation of Shohei Ooka\u2019s classic novel about a Japanese soldier\u2019s harrowing experience in the Philippines, competed in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival. Shadow of Fire (2023), set in Japan\u2019s devastated black markets in the immediate aftermath of World War II, premiered in Venice\u2019s Orizzonti section, where it won the NETPAC Award. Where those films examined the Japanese experience of wartime atrocity and its aftermath, Mr. Nelson shifts the lens to the American side \u2014 and specifically to what the filmmaker calls \u201cthe wounds of those who perpetrated war.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTsukamoto says the project gestated for seven years, tracing its roots to his research for Fires on the Plain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tGeoffrey Rush in \u2018Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People\u2019 <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKino Films<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe most terrifying work of nonfiction I encountered was Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?\u201d he says. \u201cThis book, in which he poured out his crimes and the life that followed without holding anything back, has stayed with me ever since and is deeply etched in my heart.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHe adds that Nelson\u2019s story \u2014 \u201chaving spent his entire life sharing his wartime experiences\u201d \u2014 is more essential now than ever, \u201cin today\u2019s world, where conflicts are raging in various places.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe film is produced and distributed in Japan by Kinoshita Group and its distribution arm Kino Films. The announcement was timed to coincide with National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shinya Tsukamoto, the iconoclastic Japanese filmmaker best known for the body-horror landmark Tetsuo: The Iron Man, has set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[576,93,61,1042,60,270],"class_list":{"0":"post-374277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-international","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}