Shinya Tsukamoto, the rebellious Japanese director best known for his body horror films Tetsu: Iron Manhas set a Japanese version for its latest features, Mr. Nelson, did you kill people?an English-language drama inspired by 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 be released in Japanese theaters in September, paving the way for a possible launch at the Venice Film Festival.
The project marks a significant debut for Tsukamoto, who wrote, directed, shot and edited the film — his first feature film primarily in English — across locations in the United States, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. Rodney Hicks, a Broadway veteran, is an original and closing cast member renttakes his first major screen role as Allen Nelson, while Academy, Emmy and Tony Award winner Geoffrey Rush plays Dr. Daniels, a Veterans Affairs doctor who intervenes in Nelson’s downward spiral. Tatiana Ali (The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) plays Nelson’s wife, Linda, and newcomer Mark Murphy appears in flashbacks as the young Nelson.
The film is based on the real-life account of Nelson, who grew up in New York and joined the Marine Corps when he was 18, seeking to escape poverty and discrimination. After training at Camp Hansen in Okinawa, he was sent to Vietnam in 1966, where he participated in village raids targeting suspected Viet Cong men, women, and children. He returned home severely traumatized, and spent years homeless before finding treatment through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Nelson went on to devote his life to anti-war advocacy, returning to Okinawa in 1996 and eventually giving more than 1,200 lectures in schools and community halls throughout Japan. He died in 2009 and was buried in the country.
Mr. Nelson, did you kill people? It completes what Tsukamoto described as an unofficial trilogy of 20th century war films. Fires in the plain (2014), his film adaptation of Shohei Oka’s classic novel about a Japanese soldier’s horrific experience in the Philippines, competed in main competition at the Venice Film Festival. Fire shadow (2023), set in Japan’s devastated black markets in the immediate aftermath of World War II, premiered in Venice’s Orizzonti Department, where it won a NETPAC Award. These films dealt with the Japanese experience of the atrocities of war and its repercussions. Mr. Nelson He shifts the lens to the American side – specifically to what the director calls “the wounds of those who committed the war.”
Tsukamoto says the project took seven years, and is rooted in his research Fires in the plain.
“It was the scariest real-life work I’ve ever encountered Mr. Nelson, did you kill people?“This 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 engraved in my heart,” he says.
He adds that Nelson’s story – “having spent his whole life sharing his wartime experiences” – is now more relevant than ever, “in today’s world, where conflicts are raging in different places.”
The film is produced and distributed in Japan by Kinoshita Group and its distribution arm Kino Films. The announcement is timed to coincide with National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29.
