Critic Reviews

At the heart of the movie are the prolonged, increasingly violent, self-criticism sessions - an escalating, claustrophobic, paranoid reign of terror, staged in near-darkness and shown in close-up.

A raw mix of documentary and fiction, directed by Koji Wakamatsu, a veteran of soft-core porn ("Go, Go Second Time Virgin") whose anti-war stunner "Caterpillar" just played here.

The film has a narrative grip and pitiless portrait of idealism run amok that's hard to resist.

The film's commitment to representing the harsh truths of an unfortunate historical moment is admirable, but it tends to grate rather than illuminate.

The stilted and awkward physical and vocal performances in combination with the visually flat cinematography bring to mind the look, sound and visual texture of American daytime soaps, an association that perversely makes the movie more and more watchable.