is a 2010 Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Kōji Wakamatsu was a Japanese film director who directed such ''pinku eiga'' films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976). He has been called "the most important director to emerge in the pink film ...

, partially drawn from

Edogawa Ranpo , better known by the pen name was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the le ...

's banned short-story .Roberto Silvestri
Sesso acrobatico contro la guerra
'', '' il manifesto'' 16 February 2010, p.12 The film is a critique of the right-wing militarist

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

that guided Japan's conduct in Asia during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The film deals with various issues, such as war crimes, handicapped veterans, and

spousal abuse Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

. The film also deals with themes of

sexual perversion Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything o ...

and features graphic sex scenes. It was nominated for the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The winn ...

at the

60th Berlin International Film Festival The 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 21 February 2010, with Werner Herzog as President of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Chinese director Wang Quan'an's romantic drama ''Apart Together'', in comp ...

Shinobu Terajima is a Japanese actress. Her feature films include '' Akame 48 Waterfalls'' (2003) and '' Vibrator'' (2003). For her role in ''Caterpillar'' (2010), Terajima won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 60th Berlin Film Festival while her performan ...

received the

Silver Bear for Best Actress The Silver Bear for Best Actress (german: Silberner Bär/Beste Darstellerin) was an award presented at the Berlin International Film Festival from 1956 to 2020. It was given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance and was chos ...

at the Berlin Film Festival for her portrayal of Kurokawa's wife.

Plot

The film is set in the late 1930s, during the

. In the first scene,

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

Kurokawa scourges, rapes and disembowels Chinese people during the war. Later, he returns home as a war hero, but with a horribly mutilated body. He is alive but reduced to a torso (no limbs), deaf and mute, with burns covering half of his face, but with three medals on his chest. Despite his condition, he is still constantly eager for sex, which he performs acrobatically with his wife. The sexual acts are rough and are imposed on his wife, who is repulsed by him. Nevertheless she feels a duty to take care of him. The film concludes with the disabled veteran Kurokawa committing suicide by dragging himself into a pond outside his home.

Cast

as Shigeko Kurokawa *

Keigo Kasuya The Japanese language has a system of honorific speech, referred to as , parts of speech that show respect. Their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, ...

as Tadashi Kurokawa * Sabu Kawahara as The Village Chief *

Go Jibiki is a Japanese actor. He was born on May 7, 1976, in Tokyo, Japan. Because of his father's business, he spent his early life in Singapore (1983–86) and New York (1986–89), and thus learned to speak English fluently. After returning to Japan, ...

as Military officer #1 * Arata as Military officer #2 *

Katsuyuki Shinohara Katsuyuki (written: , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese table tennis player *, Japanese baseball player *, Japanese baseball player *, Japanese racing driver *, Japanese film director ...

as Kuma *

Daisuke Iijima is a common masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Daisuke can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *大輔, "big, assist" *大介, "big, mediate" *大祐, "big, bless" *大助, "big, help" *大典, "big, law/rule ...

as Commander * Ichirō Ogura as Announcer *

Sanshirō Kobayashi Sanshiro may refer to: *Plawres Sanshiro, a popular anime series aired in 1983 in Japan, Hong Kong, the Middle East and Greece and Algeria * Sanshiro Sugata, the directorial debut of the Oscar-winning Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa * Sanshir ...

as Village man #1 *

Mariko Terada Mariko may refer to: Places * Mariko-juku (鞠子宿), a post station along the Tōkaidō * Mariko, Mali * Mariko (crater), an impact crater on Venus People * MC Mariko (Mari Pajalahti, born 1979), Finnish music group Kwan * Bourama Mariko (born ...

as Chinese woman #2 *

Ken Furusawa Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

Themes

Wakamatsu's film is part of a revisionist movement seen in fashion, cartoons and videogames that reconsider the country's past. The film is the political response to and criticism of

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Nationalism, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was ...

's short film ''

Patriotism Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...

''. ''Caterpillar'' criticizes

Japanese militarism refers to the ideology in the Empire of Japan which advocates the belief that militarism should dominate the political and social life of the nation, and the belief that the strength of the military is equal to the strength of a nation. Histo ...

, satirically deploys Japanese propaganda, and significantly politicizes and humanizes

Edogawa Rampo , better known by the pen name was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the lea ...

's 1929 banned short-story. The film demystifies the glorification of war, which is used to hide war's grim reality. It also depicts the unfair demands placed on Japanese women, during war and peacetime. The film represents a departure from Japanese depictions of World War 2 in the immediate Post-war years of Japanese film which often emphasized a notion of Japanese victimhood with little or no acknowledgement of wartime atrocities. There are frequent references in the film to the mass-rape and murder of Chinese civilians during the Second Sino-Japanese War. There is no sense that Japan was the primary victim of World War 2, as may be seen in other Japanese films on the war. The film is both anti-nationalist and anti-war in its approach to depiction of Imperial Japan in wartime.

Reception

The film received a 91% rating on film review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. It grossed $4,157 at the domestic box office and $247,765 at the foreign box office for a combined Worldwide total of $251,922.

Awards

It was nominated for the

at the

received the

at the Berlin Film Festival for her portrayal of Kurokawa's wife.

References

External links

Official websiteEnglish version
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caterpillar 2010 films 2010 drama films 2010 war drama films 2010s Japanese-language films Japanese war drama films Films about amputees Films based on works by Edogawa Ranpo Films directed by Kōji Wakamatsu Films set in the 1930s Second Sino-Japanese War films Films based on short fiction 2010s Japanese films