Fool for the Camera

Everyone here talks about how Okuzaki insisted on his search for the truth, but in my opinion, his desire to become 'someone' was behing his actions instead of will. Here are some of the many reasonings for that.
First of all, siblings of the executed soldiers seem to give up after a certain point. We don't see why or how and it seems a bit unbelievable since they were so enthusiastic beforehand. My guess is that Okuzaki made them back out, because he wanted to be one man after the truth. You can see traces of this behavior when he assigns his wife and friends to act as the siblings but tells them to leave the talk to him.
Other indicators are rather shocking. Kazuo Hara (who gave a little Q&A after the screening) told us that after the first fight between Okuzaki and the veteran, Okuzaki went to him and said he was really dissapointed of him and his crew. Because he thought that they would try to separate them when the fight broke up and it would look like a dramatic scene where Okuzaki would be the powerful guy who can beat anyone if he was allowed to. Instead, in that scene, he became the lunatic after sitting on a man for some five minutes and then being neutralized by the man's relatives. You can actually see him shouting 'they are beating me! cut the tape!' when the relatives hold him down at the end of the fight.
And the last one was really shocking to me, again told by Kazuo Hara. Accordingly, Okuzaki wanted Hara to record him while he attempted to assasinate Koshimizu and shot his son instead. Hara said they didn't go that far and declined this request.
Him being a lunatic instead of a hero, doesn't necessarily decrease the value of the film, it actually makes it way more interesting and a very valuable study on a character and how this character can advance his actions with the presence of a rolling camera. Possibly one of the most monotone and, at the same time, interesting piece of filmmaking. And these anectdotes only make it more twisted. Hope you found them interesting too.