Review of Caterpillar (2010) by Anthony A — 16 Feb 2013

In "Caterpillar," the good news is that Kyuzo(Shima Ohnishi) returns alive from the war and a hero to boot. The bad news is he is not exactly in one piece, with all of his limbs having been amputated and communication with other people at best rudimentary. After his wife Shigeko(Shinobu Terajima) calms down sufficiently enough, she considers putting him out of his misery but then thinks twice about it, settling down into the routine of taking care of him for the long haul which also includes an itch he needs to scratch...

To its credit, "Caterpillar" is not just an empty provocation, as it is very much anti-war, and not just in the ironic way it uses music. The first time we see Kyuzo is when he is raping a Chinese woman which makes him a war criminal more than anything else. That alone questions what the entire Japanese war effort was all about. Or maybe karma can just be incredibly nasty. In any case, all of which is established very early on which leaves the movie, as repetitive as it is and as shoddy as the production is, little room to go anywhere, except to explore the evolving power structure of the couple which has its moments.