“AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD”
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THE STORY – In 1984, Shoko Asahara started a seemingly innocuous yoga school based in Tokyo. By 1995, the group had evolved into a doomsday cult called Aum Shinrikyo, meaning “Supreme Truth,” whose weapon of choice was sarin, an extraordinarily toxic nerve gas first invented by the Nazis during World War II. An unrelenting, in-depth look at the group, “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” weaves a chilling narrative from Asahara’s claims of being a reincarnation of Buddha to the 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway system that left 14 dead and injured an estimated 6,000 additional civilians.
Fire up any streaming service, and you’ll find a wide array of true crime documentaries, many of them focusing on violent cults. It’s easy to see why they’re so popular – humans have long been fascinated with underground aspects of society and how power can corrupt the minds of the vulnerable. “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” is exactly the type of exploration into the extremes of belief to which many are drawn nowadays. And while the topic it covers is inherently interesting, it’s told in such a standard way that it can’t help but feel uninspired and underwhelming as a film.
Aum Shinrikyo was one of many new religions that became popular in Japan at the end of the twentieth century, and it’s easily the most notorious. Founded and led by Shoko Asahara, the cult eventually grew in power and ability to the point that it carried out a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995. This act of biochemical terrorism killed 14 people and injured many more. “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” explores how the doomsday cult was able to expand uninhibited in so quickly a fashion.
The filmmakers present the upsetting, shocking story of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in a linear, timeline-based style. Like many documentaries, it contains interviews with experts in various fields and surviving victims, along with relevant archival footage. These trappings are the foundation of documentary filmmaking, and they’re used in the expected manner here. Sometimes, watching this film can almost feel like reading the Wikipedia article on the titular cult. The film’s conventional execution is further underlined by an overuse of stock footage and visually unappealing font choices for the text used to indicate dates and locations. The one stylistic choice that stands out is the use of animated recreations. These segments are meant to mimic the anime cartoons that the cult had made in order to spread their leader’s word and attract new members. It’s a wild piece of history and an exceptional detail for the filmmakers to bring to light, and their aping of the cartoons’ aesthetics to tell the true story of the cult is a clever way of using their own methods against them.
The film’s greatest coup is the fact that they were able to interview Fumihiro Joyu – the former spokesperson and public relations manager for Aum Shinrikyo. For his part in the cult’s deadly subway attack, he served time in prison. Astonishingly, the filmmakers had access to a high-ranking member of the cult, especially considering many of the other leaders were executed for their crimes. Joyu is a steady, chillingly calm presence who recounts his experiences with a cold detachment and perhaps even a bit of pride. It’s an incredible parallel to the heartfelt testimonies of those who were forever affected by the cult’s attacks.
Content retrieved from: https://nextbestpicture.com/aum-the-cult-at-the-end-of-the-world/.
