''A'' is a 1998 Japanese

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about the

Aum Shinrikyo , formerly , is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year. The group says tha ...

cult following the arrest of its leaders for instigating the

sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway The was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo Metro (then ''Teito Rapid ...

in 1995. The film focuses on a young spokesman for the cult Hiroshi Araki, a troubled 28-year-old who had severed all family ties and rejected all forms of materialism before joining the sect. Director

Tatsuya Mori is a Japanese documentary filmmaker, TV director and author. Career Born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Mori graduated from Rikkyo University, where he appeared in the student films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. After graduating, he tried acting and even app ...

was allowed exclusive access to Aum's offices for over a year as news media were continually kept out. However, despite the documentary's unique perspective on Aum's internal workings, it was not financially successful. Mori released the sequel ''A2'' in 2001, which followed the dissolution of the cult in the absence of their leader,

Shoko Asahara , born , was the founder and leader of the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced ...

Cast

* Hiroshi Araki - Himself

References

External links

*
"A" review at Midnight Eye
1998 films Japanese documentary films 1998 documentary films Aum Shinrikyo Documentary films about terrorism 1990s Japanese films {{hist-documentary-film-stub