Home release - Onoda - 10 000 nights in the jungle: on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 15 in France

By Mulder, 13 december 2021

Presented in the Un Certain Regard section but also opening film at the last Cannes Film Festival, Arthur Harari's Onoda is released on video with interesting bonuses.

Well received by the press and the public, Onoda nevertheless came back from the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival with nothing. Inspired loosely by the true story of a Japanese soldier of the Second World War who will remain almost thirty years in the Philippine jungle, ignoring the end of the conflict.

A genesis that the director explained:
"For several years, even before the shooting of Black Diamond, I thought of an adventure film. I devoured Conrad and Stevenson and was interested in solo sailors or polar expeditions. One day, as I was talking about this desire in front of my father, he evoked, almost as a joke, the incredible case of this Japanese soldier who stayed several years on an island. That's how I met Onoda... (...), I immediately felt a call. From there, I documented myself, read interviews, consulted the Internet and above all I met, in Japan, Bernard Cendron [author in 1974, with Gérard Chenu, of the book, Onoda, alone in war in the jungle] who opened his archives and entrusted me with his memories.

And he confirms that he has never read Onoda's book (No surrender, my thirty-year war):
"I found out later when the script was already written and we were about to start shooting. Not having read the book gave me the freedom to invent the character I wanted. For me, Onoda was a fictional carburetor and I didn't want to be a prisoner of his subjectivity.

For its release on video, Onoda is rather well equipped with bonuses. Indeed, both editions promise us a return on the creation of Onoda (the image, the script, the music), a conversation with the actors, two short films of the director (La Main sur la gueule, 2007 and Peine Perdue, 2013), a poster gallery and the trailer.

The Blu-Ray edition will also feature Arthur Harari's short film Des jours dans la rue (2005).

Synopsis
Late 1944. Japan is losing the war. On the orders of the mysterious Major Taniguchi, the young Hiroo Onoda is sent to an island in the Philippines just before the American landing. The handful of soldiers he leads into the jungle soon discover the unknown doctrine that will bind them to this man: the Secret War. For the Empire, the war is about to end. For Onoda, it will end 10,000 nights later.

Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
Directed by Arthur Harari
Screenplay by Arthur Harari and Vincent Poymiro
With the collaboration of Bernard Cendron freely inspired by the life of Onoda Hiroo
Produced by Nicolas Anthomé
With Yuya Endo, Kanji Tsuda, Yuya Matsuura, Tetsuya Chiba and Shinsuke Kato
Music : Sebastiano De Gennaro, Enrico Gabrielli, Andrea Poggio, Sato Gak and Olivier Marguerit
Editing: Laurent Sénéchal
Production companies: Bathysphere and To Be Continued
In co-production with Ascent Film, Chipangu, Frakas Productions, Pandora Film Produktion, Anti-Archive, ARTE, France Cinéma, RAI Cinema and Proximus
Distributed by Le Pacte (France)
Release date: July 21 (France)
Running time: 2 hours 47 minutes

(Source: press release)