Japanese Reviews Reviews

Documentary Review: Me and the Cult Leader (2020) by Atsushi Sakahara

The 1995 Tokyo metro sarin gas terrorist attack by the cult Aum (currently Aleph) has been one of the most shattering events in Japan's modern history, with its implications and consequences for the 6,000+ people that were injured still being very significant. Director was among the injured, suffered lifelong damage and post-traumatic stress disorder, and managed his recovery in a number of ways, including being rather vocal about the event, both to the press and through his podcast, “Before After Aum”.

For “”, Sakahara embarks on a trip around the country with , who is in charge of PR for Aum/Aleph, asking all these questions anyone would like to ask, and even more that have resulted from his personal experience and his deep thoughts on the matter. The result is dramatic, shocking, but also extremely sincere. It is also worth mentioning that the two men are around the same age, grew up in the same region, and attended the same university, but their lives diverged dramatically in the late 80s as Hiroshi Araki joined the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo following a family illness and Atsushi Sakahara found himself a job in downtown Tokyo.

The initial questions any viewer would have before watching the documentary are quite obvious. Why and how does this organization still exist, particularly since their leader, Shoko Asahara, and the people involved in the sarin attack were sentenced to death and executed in 2018? How are there still people who remain in Aleph's ranks and how do they even dare trying to bring in more members, and how do they even succeed occasionally in something like that. Sakahara poses these questions, but as time passes, the focus starts to change while the two men get to know each other better.

The dynamics of the documentary are established from the beginning. Sakahara may be polite and all smiles, but the fact that he accuses Araki for what happened becomes obvious immediately, as much as that the latter, who seems rather timid, is on the defensive and experiences much discomfort for having to do this. This intense imbalance occasionally borders on bullying, a fact that, remarkably, both of them acknowledge.

In that fashion, Sakahara's questions about what happened and how Araki joined Aum, abandoned his family, and is still on the organization are pointy as they are accurate, and the latter does not seem to have all the answers. The fact that he cannot hold his tears back as soon as they reach his hometown is a distinct sample of his contradictory feelings, while he soon finds his and Aum's philosophy challenged by Sakahara's remarks in the deepest level, which again, leads to no or non-convincing answers.

Soon, Araki's life story is revealed along with the fact that he also carries some trauma due to his suffering as a child, while one of the strongest moments in the film comes when he starts narrating his almost metaphysical experience of meeting Asahara.

Another rather impactful moment comes when Araki meets Asahara's parents, and once more, is defensive. The same applies to the initial scenes, that show Aleph's headquarters, briefly highlighting how most people are offensive against them and also presents some of the cult's teachings, particularly regarding their will to occupy as little space as possible and to leave any kind of flavor behind. Lastly, the scenes where Araki visits the memorial of the victims and addresses the press are equally powerful.

Araki, despite his sincerity and his braveness in confronting both director and the press, eventually emerges as an enigmatic and controversial figure, since, despite not having proper answers, will not apologize for the Sarin attack nor hold his leader accountable for what happened. Furthermore, his reasons for joining and staying in the organization and how sound their dogma actually is are not convincing at all, which poses even more questions about the aforementioned questions. The fact that Sakahara breaks him down repeatedly also becomes obvious, but it is not sure if all this changed something in him regarding the organization.

On the technical side, the documentary unfolds much like a road movie, with much of the conversations taking place inside various vehicles, mostly trains. Tatsuya Yamada's cinematography captures the mostly rural surroundings quite beautifully, while his framing on a number of occasions is impressive. At the same time, however, and despite the fact that a few moments outside the dialogue are much needed, some of these scenes that focus only on the setting seem unnecessary, particularly since they prolong a documentary that is already almost 2 hours long. On the other hand, Sakahara manages to make a film that, almost exclusively, comprises of him talking with Araki, stay interesting for the overwhelming majority of its duration is a feat on itself. The same applies to the fact that, although the documentary is as much about him as it is for Araki and Aum, and he is constantly in front of the camera, the result does not seem pretentious or self-centered at all, and the approach actually works quite well for the narrative.

“Me and the Cult Leader” may be a bit too long, but it is brutally sincere, interesting, dramatic, shocking, and sheds much light to a case, an organization and two radically opposite men, while providing food for much thought. Overall, an excellent documentary.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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