AllMovie

The Professor and His Beloved Equasion director Takashi Koizumi re-teams with Ran producer Masato Hara for the first time since working together on Akira Kurosawa's 1985 lavish period drama to tell the tale of a horrific yet largely unexplored chapter in the history of World War II. Adapted from author Shohei Ooka's novel Nagai Tabi, Koizumi and Hara's film follows the war crimes tribunal of Lieutenant General Tasuku Okada (Makoto Fujita) after he is accused of executing thirty-eight American POWs without the requisite military tribunal. The executions came in the aftermath of the American bombing of Nagoya, and now as Okada makes clear his reasoning behind his drastic course of action the entire courtroom, including his defense lawyer Joseph Featherstone (Robert Lesser), begin to realize just how heavy a tool that war can take on a man who has vowed to protect his country to the death.