Photo/Illutration A scene from “Revolution + 1” (Provided by Dogsugar)

A film featuring a protagonist modeled on Tetsuya Yamagami, the suspect in the slaying of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is scheduled to be screened on the day of Abe’s state funeral.

Sure to attract controversy for both the subject matter and the shocking timing of its debut, “Revolution + 1” was directed by Masao Adachi, 83, a former member of the leftwing revolutionary group the Japanese Red Army, which the central government considers a terrorist organization.

“When I learned of the incident, I thought, this is serious. At the same time, as a filmmaker, I felt I should describe it through a film,” Adachi said. “I wanted to zero in on the inner world of Yamagami.”

The film opens with a scene of Abe delivering a campaign speech on July 8 before it introduces the protagonist, a character called Kawakami, played by actor Soran Tamoto, sitting in prison reminiscing about how his life had led up to Abe’s murder.

It covers the major events in his life, such as when his father killed himself, his older brother lost his vision and his mother joined the Unification Church, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

The film depicts how the protagonist’s anger grows toward the religious group after being forced to give up on going to university and finds he has reached a dead-end in life.

Referring to his own past, Adachi said, “I don’t want to view Yamagami as a hero.”

“The violent revolution-oriented course that I was committed to is no longer welcome in public,” he said. “I presented nothing but the way he was pushed to the wall and how he brought his plan to its final stage as straight as a line.”

Adachi wrote scripts and directed pornographic movies after joining a film production company in 1965 that was established by the late filmmaker Koji Wakamatsu. The production company often made pornography with plots based on real-life events, such as the 1970 Yodogo hijacking incident.

Adachi then co-directed a documentary with Wakamatsu in 1971 on the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine titled, “The Red Army-PFLP Declaration of World War.”

After that experience, he joined the Japanese Red Army, which carried out a deadly attack on a Tel Aviv airport in 1972, and he was later incarcerated in Lebanon.

He then returned to film, directing one in 1975 that speculated what went on inside the head of serial killer Norio Nagayama, who was executed by hanging in 1997.

Junichi Inoue, a screenwriter, wrote the first draft for the new film about Abe’s suspected killer in about three days.

Filming started from late August and was done in eight days, in time to premiere on the eve of the Sept. 27 state funeral for Abe in Tokyo.

More screenings are expected to be held at 13 locations nationwide from Sept. 27 to 29.

The production cost about 7 million yen ($48,630).

Adachi said the film will become more widely available at the end of the year.

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