United Red Army, directed by Koji Wakamatsu

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United Red Army -- Illustrated Screenplay
directed by Koji Wakamatsu
© 2011 Blaq Out
© 2011 Kino Lorber, Inc.

[Transcribed from the movie by Tara Carreon]

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

CLICK HERE TO SEE "UNITED RED ARMY" -- ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY

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Part 1 of 7

UNITED RED ARMY [Excerpt] -- Illustrated Screenplay
directed by Koji Wakamatsu
© 2011 Blaq Out
© 2011 Kino Lorber, Inc.
[Transcribed from the movie by Tara Carreon]

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

[Tsuneo Mori] Before the general assembly, I want to raise the issue of the water.
Though we had to spend a night on a ridge with no water to reach the base,
the RLF failed to prepare enough canteens.
Fortunately, we were able to refill them.
But this could have endangered the joint military training operation.



So first, I'd like to hear self-criticism for lacking revolutionary awareness.



[Hiroko Nagata] True, we were naive about the water canteens.
We hadn't had water problems with any bases before.



I knew we had to spend a night without water,
but I hadn't thought far enough ahead.
I admit our negligence could have ruined the plans,
and I criticize myself.
I'll raise my revolutionary consciousness and fight through the all-out war.

[Tsuneo Mori] No objection!



[Everyone] No objection!

***



***



[Hiroko Nagata] Toyama, why did you come to the mountain?



[Mieko Toyama] Why? I came for military training.

[Hiroko Nagata] No, I mean what feelings prompted you to come?



[Mieko Toyama] In order to advance the revolutionary war,
I understood that I would have to become a soldier.
In the enduring stage of conflict of the global revolutionary war,
we must develop the revolutionary war in advanced countries ...

[Hiroko Nagata] But you, why did you come here?



You haven't said a word about yourself.
Why did you come to the mountain?



[Mieko Toyama] What do you want me to say?

[Hiroko Nagata] We don't want to hear those kinds of things, but your actual feelings.
We want to know why you want to be a revolutionary soldier.

[Mieko Toyama] For the revolutionary war, we must take on a militant quality and ...



[Hiroko Nagata] No, that's not it. In more practical terms.
Because it is an extremely real situation we face.
Well,
why did you put on makeup this morning?
Why do you need makeup in the mountains?



Why are you growing your hair out?

[Mieko Toyama] Before, my hair was short, and the police knew that so
I decided to grow it in order to do underground activities.

[Hiroko Nagata] If that's the case, why not just use a wig?
I think there's another reason.
What is it?

[Kaneko] Toyama, why don't you take off your ring?



[Mieko Toyama] It's important. My mom gave it to me.



[Kaneko] Aren't you brushing your hair during meetings?



[Shindo] She just became a soldier, and we haven't addressed the female issues yet.
I accept responsibility for addressing the issue.

[Ozaki] This is probably a difference between city safe houses and mountain bases.
I think it's a difference in style between the RAF and the RLF.

[Hiroko Nagata] What have you all done since you came to the mountain?
You haven't done a thing.
The RAF doesn't understand anything.



You have this great mountain hut and plenty of food.
But living in a mountain base isn't so simple.
If things are like this,



all the work put in by the RLF will be meaningless



There's no way we can work together.



[Tsuneo Mori] We accept the RLF's criticisms of Toyama as general critiques of the RAF.



Though the RLF's group and self-criticisms emerged naturally,



evaluation from the perspective of the communist movement is also worthy.



We must address the relations between each revolutionary group from that perspective.
Through mutual critique, from each individual becoming communist
the all-out war can be won.
No objection!
Thus, until comrade Toyama criticizes her activities and becomes a communist,
we will not let her leave the mountain.
All of us will support comrade Toyama's self-critique.
She herself must work hard to go through critique.
Additionally, self-criticism is demanded of all others who require it.
Anyone leaving the mountain for something other than prescribed duty
will be executed.
No objection!

[Everyone] No objection!

***

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Part 2 of 7



[Kunio Bando] There are scratches right here.

[Tsuneo Mori] Wasn't it Shindo in charge of the guns?



Shindo, neglecting these scratches was irresponsible.



[Uegaki] Shindo, we've been activists together a long time.
Don't you have something to say to me?
I don't mind. Go ahead and criticize. I want to critique my past activities.

[Shindo] Oh, I've got a bunch.

[Mieko Toyama] Uegaki, do you know what critique involves?
It's not like there is some set procedure.



[Tsuneo Mori] Toyama, you don't understand a damn thing.



No one can teach you how to do self-critique.
Self-critique means you alone discover the most revolutionary task for you.



And, Shindo, you didn't even notice the scratches on the guns.
How can you criticize Uegaki, you asshole!



Before you criticize him, you have a lot to criticize yourself over.
Both of you will undergo critique through training!



You too, Namekata!
All three of you should reflect
on the significance of the struggle up to now.



Think about how to elevate the struggle from here.
Go run!

***

[Tsuneo Mori] The three of them are ideologically loose. We can't be easy on them.
Everyone must work together so they can complete their self-critique.



All of you are also responsible for whether they complete their critiques.

***



[Tsuneo Mori] Now we will hear the results from each of them individually.
But the content of their critiques must be expressed by them or it's meaningless.



What did you acquire through training?



[Mieko Toyama] I will be reborn. I will start from scratch as a revolutionary soldier.



[Tsuneo Mori] No, that isn't self-critique. That's nothing.
You must engage in critique more subjectively!
How have you critiqued your activities up to now?



How do you see the failed struggle at Tokyo University?
You haven't gone through self-criticism at all.



[Shindo] I've been ambivalent up to now about the all-out war.
But through training, I've been able to banish those thoughts.



[Tsuneo Mori] No!
You've put the RAF Central Army in grave danger because of Mochihara.
If you aren't critiquing yourself for that, what the hell are you doing?



You must continue!

***

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Part 3 of 7



[Tsuneo Mori] I'm going to Haruna Base.
I'll be back in a week.
I think Toyama is sending money to Shigenobu in Palestine.



Find out the route and how much she's sending.
Don't be deceived.

***



[Red Army Man] Toyama, when you contact Shigenobu, where do you send the letters?
You sent money too, right? How much and how did you send it?
Mori wants to know. Tell us.



[Red Army Man] If you can't tell us, write it down.
We'll put it in an envelope and give it to him.



***



[Mount Haruna, Gunma Prefecture]



December 15: The RLF base at Haruna is complete ...



[Tsuneo Mori] In this process leading ultimately to all-out war,



we must affirm and debate



our own revolutionary status as individuals.
So our first task is to question whether each of us can truly maintain



this path to all-out war.
We must question ourselves once more.
Thus, the RAF and the RLF



will no longer pursue communist revolution as separate entities.
We will do so together as an armed URA with one intention.
No objection.



[Hiroku Nagata] Welcome back.



[Kato] I put absolute faith in the leadership of the RLF.
The "Commemoration of the Massacre of Comrade Shibano"



held at the public hall in Itabashi
was the first great step towards the all-out war.
The leaders purged the names of RLF members



from the hosts and sought unexpected comments.
Plus, they prescribed separatism



with regard to the legal members who planned the meeting.
The legal members followed the leaders' suggestions
in hosting the 12/18 meeting and deserve no criticism.
Now is the time for all members, legal and imprisoned,
to forge militant bonds and pursue all-out war.



Thus, with the meeting falling into chaos,



the leaders' calls for factionalism warrant self-criticism.



***



[Hiroku Nagata] Kato,



among those who were caught last month,
why were you alone able to get out after 23 days?

[Kato] Because I kept my mouth shut.

[Hiroko Nagata] You did talk to the police, right?

[Kato] Yes, when they let me eat.



[Hiroko Nagata] Then you didn't keep your mouth shut completely.

[Kato] But I didn't let them make a record.

[Hiroko Nagata] In a climate of all-out war, casual conversation is not silence.
In reflecting on your prison time,
your self-criticism must begin with your arrest.
Right, tell us everything about getting caught.
You should be critiquing all your activities up to now.



***







[Kato] What's up? You okay?



[Kojima] I'm scared.



[Flashback to murder]
I feel like what happened before could happen again.



[Kato] It's all right, Kojima. It won't happen again.

[Kojima] I don't want to die.



I want to get off the mountain.

[Kato] You can't say that. If they find out, you're in trouble.

[Kojima] I don't understand what Nagata and Mori are talking about.
What do I do?

[Kato] It's rough, but you have to do self-critique.

[Kojima] How do I do it?
If we go through self-critique, we can make a revolution?



***

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Part 4 of 7



[Red Army Man] You're supposed to be undergoing self-critique.
What the fuck are you doing?



[Red Army Man] Is this a serious critique?
Hey, Kato!



[Red Army man] Where the hell do you think you are?



[Hiroko Nagata] Kato and Kojima have soiled the sacred space of the party.





[Tsuneo Mori] We have to destroy the limitations of your self-critique.
In order to overcome those limits, we must beat them.
You'll come to with the self-awareness of a new human,
capable of being a communist.
Leadership means beating.
Now is the time to put this leadership into practice.
We must strengthen the party in preparation for all-out war.
No objection!



Kato, criticize your shameful acts and answer with the necessary reflection!



[Punches Kato in the face]

[Kato] In the opinion report on the December meeting,



the point on guns was absent.



[Tsuneo Mori] Do you really have the will to fight in the all-out war?
[Punches Kato again]



[Kato] When I was arrested, I criticized myself for not trying to break free.
I soiled the sacred space of the party.



[Red Army Man] Listen, this is the revolutionary praxis of self-critique.



[Red Army man] You need to be more revolutionary!



[Red Army Man] Kato!



[Punches Kato]



[Hiroko Nagata] Kojima, you're guilty too. Stand up.
Wait, wait, wait.



If a man beats her, that won't work. It'll just make her happy.
Sugisaki, Kaneko.



[Sugisaki slaps Kojima]
Stand up and take it!

[Kaneko] Critique yourself!

[Everyone] [Slaps Kojima around]



[Hiroko Nagata] Everyone move aside.
Hurry up. Hey, you've got to beat him too.
So he undergoes proper critique. Hurry and beat him!
You need to do this for your own advancement.



It hurts, but you've got to stick with it.



[Tsuneo Mori] Think of it as practice for all-out war!



[Red Army Man] Overcome this situation and finish the critique.



Show your will.



[Red Army Man] Brother! Critique yourself!
[Punches Kato]



[Hiroko Nagata] You too.



[Tsuneo Mori] Motohisa!
This is helping your comrades.
Pummel him!



[Motohisa] [To Kato] Critique yourself!
Hurry.
[Punches Kato]

***



[Tsuneo Mori] The insistence on Kato's critique was the externalization of self-criticism,
but you were resentful of him calling you petit bourgeois.
Your criticism of him was based on individual feelings.



This warps the meaning of critique and trivializes his transition to communism.



So you need to critique your own past activities.
Ozaki, what is your self-critique for the 12/18 action?



[Hiroko Nagata] Shibano invited you, but you didn't go.
Had there been more than one person,
he might not have been killed by the police.
How do you critique yourself for that?
What would you have done if you had been there?

[Tsuneo Mori] Show us how you would confront the cops!



Can someone play the part of the police?



[Red Army Man] [Punches Ozaki]
Stand up.

[Red Army Man] Critique yourself!
You're not done yet.



[Red Army Woman] This is meaningless.



[Tsuneo Mori] Ozaki, do you have what it takes to do self-critique?

***



[Tsuneo Mori] That guy has no idea what critique means.
If we just leave him, he'll never be able to do it.
With Kato, we pummeled his face to instill that reflection,



but still, he didn't get it.
In demanding critique, we have to make them lose consciousness.
For Ozaki's critique, concentrate on the stomach to make him pass out.



[Red Army Man] Ozaki, your spirit needs to be more revolutionary.



[Punches Ozaki in the stomach]



[Red Army Man] Hang in there. Work through the critique!



[Red Army Man] You'll be reborn as a soldier of the revolution.
[Punches Ozaki in the stomach]



[Sugisaki] Hang in there, Ozaki!

***





***



[Hiroko Nagata] Tonight is New Year's Eve, so let's feast.

[Tsuneo Mori] I have something to report before we eat.



Ozaki is dead.



It was a death by defeatism.



The communist movement we stake our lives on is a battle he couldn't win.



He brought on his own death through defeatism.



His death does not belong to us.
He could not critique his own defeatism and this resulted in his death.
We will overcome his defeatism.



We must greet the New Year with a new commitment to advancing.



[Hiroko Nagata] Let us be thankful for our food.

***



[Ozaki had been Sakaguchi's junior at Tokyo Fisheries University.
December 31, 1971: Mitsuo Ozaki, 21, dead.]

***

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Part 5 of 7



[Shindo] I criticize myself for failing to notice the scratches on the guns.



[Tsuneo Mori] With such negligence, can you fight the all-out war?
What is your self-critique for letting Mochihara get away
and putting the party in danger?



Stand up.
Be strong.



[Red Army Man] Shindo, it's for the revolution, Critique yourself.



[Punches Shindo in the stomach]



[Red Army man] Make yourself a communist.





[Punches Shindo]



[Red Army man] Shindo, your critique is called for!



[Shindo] Why?
Why are you doing this to me?
Is this really ...
necessary
for the revolution?





[Tsuneo Mori] You must consider the reasons on your own.
[Punches Shindo]
You must undergo self-critique!



Hey, Toyama.
Namekata!



Is your critique over?
If so, you should be able to do this too.
Go ahead!
Come on, hurry.



[Red Army Man] It's for Shindo.



[Tsuneo Mori] What was your critique at Arakura Base?
[Punches Shindo]
Toyama!
You do it too!
Go ahead!



[Mieko Toyama] I can't do it.



[Hiroko Nagata] What did you do at Arakura?



When did you change clothes?



Why did you come up to the mountain
and worry about how you look?
You haven't completed your critique!
Reactionary.
I thought you were a revolutionary soldier.



[Mieko Toyama] [Pummels Shindo]

***



[After being released,
Shindo was arrested at Yasuda Hall at Tokyo University in January 1969.
He organized day laborers in Tokyo and Yokohama before joining the RAF.
A member of the unit that plotted Plan M, he didn't follow Mori's instructions.



He helped Mochihara escape to avoid execution.



January 1, 1972: Ryuzaburo Shindo, 21, dead.]





[Kojima had been a junior of Terabayashi's,
joining the RLF to fight the Security Treaty.
She had been Yoshitaka Kato's lover.
She had always regretted participating in the executions
of Haiki and Mukaiyama.



January 1: Kazuko Kojima, 22, dead.]

***

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Part 6 of 7



[Hiroko Nagata] Don't just sit there.
Say something!



[Red Army Man] Your statements are no self-critique.



[Red Army Man] Do you really have the will for critique?



[Hiroko Nagata] You being a founding member of the RAF
has no bearing here and now.



[Mieko Toyama] I don't want to wind up like Kojima.
I don't want to die.



But I just don't understand how to self-critique.

[Tsuneo Mori] Wrong.
You don't understand anything.



Saying "I want to live" is an abandoning of revolutionary thought.
A defeat with regard to communism.
To give yourself to party-building as a communist is the only meaning of "living."



[Kaneko] Critique yourself!



[Red Army Boy] What do you think of yourself?



[Sugisaki] This is why you're so messed up.



[Kaneko] Do you know what it means to become a communist?



[Sugisaki] Don't go using coquetry as a weapon.



[NOTE: HAVE TOYAMA DO CRITIQUE BY BURYING KOJIMA]

***





[Mieko Toyama] I'm gonna do self-critique all the way and be a soldier for revolution!
I'll endure the agony.
So, give me more trials.
I won't give up.

[Tsuneo Mori] Take a good look at Kojima's face!



It's the face of defeat.
Even after death, she's anti-revolutionary.





***

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Part 7 of 7



[Mieko Toyama] I --



I carried the body because I had to overcome my fear of death
in order to become a revolutionary soldier.
With this, I've taken one step closer.

[Tsuneo Mori] That's not what I'm asking!



Are you capable of critiquing yourself?

[Mieko Toyama] Yes.

[Tsuneo Mori] Good!
Then ...
let's see you hit yourself.

[Mieko Toyama] Yes.

[Tsuneo Mori] Show me how you do critique without help from your comrades.



[Mieko Toyama] [Slaps herself]



[Tsuneo Mori] Strike those proud lips!



Crush that haughty nose!



Aim for those leering eyes!

[Sugisaki] No resting!



[Kaneko] Keep going until you finish the critique!



[Red Army Boy] You can't be soft!



[Hiroko Nagata] Go ahead and take a look at that face
boys found so charming.