This movie was way better than I expected it to be. I was thinking it would be a broad documentary about the Aum cult (which is a buddhist 'cult' which had a questionable leader, this cult perpetrated the tokyo subway gas attacks of 1995.) I thought this movie would have the feeling of "LOOK AT ALL THESE CRAZY PEOPLE!"

But, it really wasnt. From what I gather, Aum is a very peaceful and utopian religion. The majority of their members live their lives under quite strict buddhist practices. One scene even shows a member taking some bugs outside their house rather than killing them. Aum teaches that society as it is now leads to corruption which will bring about an armegeddon.

Ironically, corruption occured within the cult itself. Some members began amassing chemical and biological weapons, and thought it would be a good idea to kill random people.

This movie is the story of Aum's PR guy, Mr Araki, who is a very peaceful and kind person, and his attempts at making the world see that he and most other Aum members are good people, who had no connection with the gas attacks at all. However, Japanese society labels all Aum members as terrorists, and treats them all as criminals.

There is a very powerful scene which shows the anger and corruption of the Japanese police towards Aum members. As they try to just walk down the street, they are stopped and harassed, and when one member tries to get away, a cop tackles him, they both fall, and the cop claims that the Aum member did the tackling. The member is arrested and charged with assault. Luckily, the filmmaker steps in and provides video evidence against the police's claims, and upon seeing the tape, the member is released within 15 minutes.

By the end of the movie, Mr. Araki is shown as a human rights activist. Many shots of him just watching his groups reputation go down the drain, showing just the slightest bit of sadness in his eyes.

I highly reccomend. Check it out if you like this kind of movie.