Caterpillar

Caterpillar is a 2010 Japanese film, directed by Koji Wakamatsu, that takes a withering look at the militarism of his country up to and during World War II. This criticism is expressed with the story of a wounded soldier who is hailed as a hero, but his wife knows better.

During the Sino-Japanese War that was a prelude to the World War, a soldier, Keigo Kasuya, is horribly maimed. When he is brought home, his wife, Shinobu Terajima, is aghast--he is without limbs, his face horribly scarred. She shrieks and runs from the house, saying that that "thing" is not her husband.

But he is, and she is expected to take care of him. He is also deaf and mostly mute, almost reduced to a primitive life form. She realizes that all he wants is to eat, sleep, and somewhat perversely, have sex. She honors his request, mounting his torso, but his frequent demands for intercourse vex her.

The village proclaims him as the "war god," and he is paraded around like prize livestock, in his uniform, with his medals pinned to his chest. But soon Terajima realizes she has power over him. He can no longer beat her, as he used to, and she taunts his uselessness, likening him to the title insect.

This is not an easy movie to watch, but it's quite powerful. The lead performances are terrific. I don't how they managed to make Kasuya look like a quadruple amputee, but they did. Sometimes I wanted to look away, but couldn't.

Interspersed with this domestic tale is scenes of the local population celebrating sending men off to war, while the women form a civil defense league, all for the glory of the empire. Wakamatsu then ends the film with the numbers of the dead--the executed war criminals, the dead from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Tokyo. He, and his lead character, ask--what was it all for?