If you have travelled to Japan in the past five decades, chances are you would have seen the face of Satoshi Kirishima on one of the many wanted posters around the country. The long-haired, bespectacled young man with a brimming smile was one of the most wanted suspects in Japan for a long time. As a member of the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, he was linked to several bombings committed by the extreme leftist group in the 1970s. He successfully evaded authorities until a man named Hiroshi Uchida revealed he was Kirishima at a Kanagawa hospital days before his death.

Writer-director Masao Adachi created a fictionalised account of Kirishima’s life as a fugitive shortly after Kirishima’s death. Adachi, who moved to Lebanon with the Japanese Red Army for 28 years, portrayed the infamous fugitive with empathy and compassion. In Escape, Kirishima is a man who has to face his doubts, convictions, and the loss of self until his last breath.

The screening on 16 November will be followed by a talk with director Masao Adachi via video call, moderated by Francisco Lo, M+ Assistant Curator of Moving Image. This talk will be held in Japanese and English, with consecutive interpretation in English.

Masao Adachi (b. 1939, Japan) is a screenwriter, director, and actor who worked closely with Koji Wakamatsu and Nagisa Oshima in the 1960s. As an active member of the Japanese Red Army, he abandoned traditional filmmaking and moved to the Middle East in the 1970s in support of Palestinian resistance. He returned to Japan in the early 2000s and resumed his filmmaking career with Prisoner/Terrorist in 2007. His 2022 film Revolution+1 tells the fictionalised story of the man who assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.